Bernice King

Nonviolence as a lifestyle and perpetual strategy will allow us to be on the offense instead of continually on the defense. We will be able to move the ball down the field with team decisions and playmaking versus constantly thinking about how the opposing forces are moving the ball.

Somehow, we have to realize that what we watch and what we listen to not only often reflects our most violent tendencies but cultivates more violence.

Among her many accomplishments, my mother is often identified as the leader of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday movement.

In 1985, I joined my mother in a protest against apartheid in which we were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. And she was at President-elect Mandela's side in Johannesburg when he claimed victory in South Africa's first free elections.

My mother made countless sacrifices so that her children - and all children - could grow up in a better nation and world.

Before she was a King, my mother was a peace advocate, a courageous leader, and an accomplished artist.

Before my mother was a King, she was a gifted vocalist and musician, whose skill and academia garnered her a scholarship to the prestigious New England Conservatory for Music in Boston.

Before my mother was a King, she climbed trees and wrestled with boys. And won. Even as a child, Coretta Scott demonstrated that her gender would not deter her success, nor did it detract from her strength.

My father really set the tone for us to be a more moral nation, to take a moral high ground in everything that we do.

Every time I go to these racial forums, it is people who are alike, or it is progressives and liberals. So I said, 'At some point, we've got to bring the progressives and the liberals and the conservatives together.'

What I'm trying to do is fulfill what my father said, which is, 'We have to find a way to live together as brothers and sisters, or together we're going to perish as fools.'

My dad was one who - he was nonpartisan, first of all. He learned to work with whatever administration was in office.

In the end, I still have the same hope as my father - that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the last word.

Something big is going on. I'm talking about a society that refuses to allow injustice just to persist without making our voices heard and without organizing to bring about effective change through our voting system.

How do we expect change to occur if we are not willing to put on the whole armor of God and fight injustice wherever it raises its ugly head?

I didn't have a father to deal with about boyfriends. I didn't have a father to show me how a man and woman relate in a family setting. Therefore, I have given over my life to mentoring young people. I'm adamant about young people who have been denied a father/daughter relationship.

At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.

Some people feel like I'm arrogant. It's unfortunate, because people don't know my heart.

Thank God for the efforts of Black Lives Matter - we've seen an awakening in this era in a way we didn't see in Daddy's era in terms of people coming to grips with white privilege.

All of us have to be committed to a life beyond our own aspirations.