Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Editor-in-Chief
- The Rev. Bernice King, elected nine months ago as the first woman president to serve at the helm of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, has yet to be sworn in due to circumstances that she has described as “a sad state of affairs”.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the debilitating strife and conflict that has erupted in the 53-year-old civil rights organization and landed in court, King was pointed and clear. The second daughter and youngest child of Dr. Martin Luther King and Corretta Scott King, she told the attentive audience of more than 200 members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Black Press of America, that the infighting has been heart-rending.
“Up until now, I have not spoken publicly about the conflict and turmoil currently suffocating, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization of such significant historic importance to the Black community, America and global progress. What a timely and wonderful occasion for me to express some of my thoughts and feelings about the great organization my father co-founded. God certainly has a way of orchestrating the proper audience, at the proper time.,” King said June 17, opening a luncheon speech during NNPA’s 70th Anniversary Convention. “As SCLC’s president-elect and daughter of its founder, I am, of course, deeply troubled and saddened by the strife and conflict the organization is experiencing. It is, indeed, a sad state of affairs. I was elected to serve as SCLC’s first female president in October 2009 and as soon as I was elected — turmoil erupted. Amidst the conflict, chaos and confusion, there are some who declare the Southern Christian Leadership Conference dead; an organization of a bygone era.”
