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Bernice King, daughter of MLK Jr., encourages Americans to have 'courageous conversations'

Posted at 12:07 AM, Aug 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-29 00:33:46-04

CINCINNATI -- Bernice King, speaking in Cincinnati on the 55th anniversary of her father's most famous speech, encouraged those who find themselves rushing to judge their political opposites instead take a step toward greater understanding.

"We don't have to be at each other's throats," she said. "Even though we have these great political divides and other divides, there is a way to have courageous conversations across a lot of different lines."

King, the daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., was five months old when her father unveiled his famous dream of racial equality to a segregated United States and 5 years old when James Earl Ray shot him to death on a hotel balcony. 

She came to Cincinnati as part of a national Procter and Gamble-sponsored tour titled Beloved Community Talks, which will commemorate the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington with discussions of equality, activism and nonviolent ways to affect modern social change.

"We've got to learn to live together and understand each other so we can create a society where all of us are respected and have value, and our dignity is enlarged and there is equity and justice for all," she said Tuesday night.