The family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has expressed hope of reviewing records related to his assassination before they are made public. King\u2019s family\u2019s statement came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to declassify records surrounding the assassinations of the civil rights icon, President John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. \u201cFor us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years,\u201d the family stated in a message shared by King\u2019s daughter, Bernice King. \u201cWe hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.\u201d The family also noted not granting interviews as they await further information. The release of the documents wasn\u2019t the only moment in the news this week for the King\u2019s family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which fell on the same Monday as Trump\u2019s inauguration this year. Bernice King, the youngest of King\u2019s four children, told MSNBC that the overlap provided an opportunity to recall her father\u2019s legacy while the country transitions to a new administration. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful that this occurs on the King holiday, the inauguration because it reminds us of King,\u201d said King, who was five years old when her father was assassinated in 1968. \u201cIt points us back to King. It says, \u2018When we move forward, we\u2019ve got to do it in the spirit of King.\u201d She called on Americans to remain steadfast in the values her father championed, particularly nonviolence. \u201cWe have to strategize. We\u2019ve been missing the strategy. We\u2019ve been missing the spirit of Dr. King,\u201d she said. \u201cThe spirit of Dr. King is nonviolence. And nonviolence is not just a posture; it\u2019s a mindset. It\u2019s a love-centered way of thinking, speaking, acting, and engaging that leads to personal, cultural, and societal transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year marked just the third time that Martin Luther King Jr. Day coincided with a presidential inauguration, the first during President Bill Clinton\u2019s second term in 1997 and the second during President Barack Obama\u2019s second term in 2013. Obama took his oath of office using a Bible that once belonged to King. In yet another incident this week that stirred controversy surrounding the King family, rapper Sexyy Red posted an AI-generated image of herself and Dr. King at a nightclub on social media on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The image showed the rapper holding hands with King in a crowded setting. The post, which lacked captions, was widely criticized and later deleted following a request from Bernice King. \u201cThis is intentionally distasteful, dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful to my family and my father, who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights,\u201d Bernice King wrote in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite calling out the post, King also addressed negative comments directed at the rapper, writing, \u201cI don\u2019t believe Sexyy Red to be a \u2018degenerate,\u2019 \u2018ghetto,\u2019 or \u2018trash,’\u201d King stated. \u201cI have spoken out in the past about the use of and comparison to either of my parents to denigrate other people.\u201d Sexyy Red immediately apologized, saying, \u201cYou ain\u2019t wrong, never meant to disrespect your family, my apologies. Just reposted something I saw that I thought was innocent.\u201d King accepted the apology. \u201cI value you as a human being,\u201d King responded. \u201cI know that my father has become a bit of a caricature to the world and that his image is often used with no regard to his family, his sacrificial work, or the tragic, unjust way in which he died (a state-sanctioned assassination). Unfortunately, I regularly challenge the disregard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has expressed hope of reviewing records related to his assassination before they are made public. King\u2019s family\u2019s statement came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to declassify records surrounding the assassinations of the civil rights icon, President John F. Kennedy, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,450,764],"class_list":["post-2345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bernice-king","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-mlk","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345\/revisions\/2346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}