Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., rebuked President Donald Trump for suggesting that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which her father helped get passed into law, led to discrimination against white people.
During a Monday sermon honoring MLK Day at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King served as pastor, Bernice King described the 47th president of the United States as participating in the “killing of truth.”
“The recent claim by President Trump that the 1964 Civil Rights Act harmed white Americans is just wrong, and it’s dangerous. It rewrites history in a way that fuels fear and resentment. My father and so many leaders of the movement…did not risk their lives to divide this nation,” said King, who serves as CEO of The King Center. “They did so because America was denying millions basic rights, the right to work, the right to vote, to live where they please, to move through society with dignity.”
As theGrio reported last week, President Trump, during an interview with The New York Times, argued that the Civil Rights Act led to white people being “very badly treated” and that “it was unfair in certain cases.”
“It accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people — people that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job. So it was, it was a reverse discrimination,” Trump said.
In her remarks on Monday, Bernice King said sternly, “The Civil Rights Act did not give Black people special treatment. It made discrimination illegal. The same discrimination you’re trying to turn around and use.” She continued, “It required the law to protect everyone equally. That is democracy.”
The youngest daughter of MLK made a direct appeal to white Americans: “So to my white brothers and sisters, the Civil Rights Act was never meant to harm you. It was meant to heal a nation broken by injustice. Fairness does not steal from you. Justice strengthens us all.”
The youngest King child urged against ceding to a “politics of fear” and “the lie that we must choose between one another to thrive.”
“America is stronger when more people are included, when we are united in respect and love, not when we retreat in fear. The Beloved Community is not built by blaming one another. It’s built by protecting the dignity of everyone, and so on this King holiday,” said King, who added, “We are not going backwards.”
Trump also faced criticism for initially failing to honor the MLK federal holiday, though the White House eventually released a proclamation from the president. The presidential memo made no explicit mention of African Americans’ struggle for freedom, but rather simply that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “unified” millions to articulate the “immortal truth” that “the measure of a person is found not in the color of their skin but in the content of their character.”
“Donald Trump has zero interest in uniting this country or recognizing its history and diversity,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
The civil rights leader continued, “Instead, he wants to pit us against each other so that we don’t pay attention to the fact that his net worth has more than doubled while families lose their health care and access to essential services; that private corporations are raking in billions of dollars through ICE’s illegal operations; that tech giants are making trillions on AI while the working class loses their jobs; and that his administration is violating federal law by refusing to release the Epstein Files and to hold pedophiles accountable.”
