The Daily Signal - Alveda King: What MLK Would Say to America Today

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

Nearly 54 years since civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, his words still resound across our nation and his legacy has influenced millions.  If alive today, how would King encourage us to tackle the renewed racial tensions America faces? And what would he have to say about divisive ideologies such as critical race theory?  As an ordained Baptist pastor and firm believer in Jesus Christ, King would oppose critical race theory because it “was socially engineered by Marxists and socialists, by people who don't believe in God,” says Alveda King, one of his nieces.  Her uncle’s message to the nation would remain centered on the Gospel of Christ because his desire was to see America “serve God [and] serve others,” Alveda King says.  King, a pro-life leader who is founder of Speak for Life, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to reflect on her uncle's legacy and address some of the greatest issues facing America today. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, January 17th. I'm Rob Blue. And I'm Virginia Allen. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We have a special show planned today in honor of Dr. King. I had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Alveda King to discuss her uncle's legacy and what Dr. King's message to America would be today. Before we get to today's show, Virginia and I want to tell you about our favorite way to get the news every morning. It's called the Morning Bell, and each weekday the Daily Signal delivers the top news and commentary directly to your inbox for free. You'll be able to read about the policy debates shaping the agenda, analysis from Heritage Foundation experts, and commentary from leading conservatives like Ben Shapiro, Dennis Breger, and Cal Thomas. It's easy to sign up. Just visitdailySignal.com and click on the connect button in the top right corner of the page. We'll start sending you the morning bell tomorrow.

Now stay tuned for my conversation with Alveda King. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It is my distinct privilege today to welcome to our show, Dr. King's niece, Dr. Alveda King. Alvita King is an author, a proud pro-life leader, and the founder of Speak for Life. Dr. Alvita King, welcome to the show. Thank you, Virginia. Hello, everyone. It has been 52 years since your uncle's death.

How do you think America is doing in our effort to accomplish the vision that Dr. King set forth for all of us in his I Have a Dream speech? I believe that if the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were here right now, he would encourage us to continue to learn to live together as brothers and all that as sisters or perish together as fools. Now, my uncle, my daddy, was his brother, or is his brother, they live in heaven. I'd like to see it that way. And Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King, he was a preacher, civil rights leader, along with his brother, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, what many people do not understand is that, first, Martin Luther King, Jr. loved God. He wasn't perfect, and no human beings are.

he loved God. So I believe if he were here today, he would say to us in the face of everything that we are encountering, whether it be COVID or race wars or horrible things happening to the weather, calamities and disaster, I believe he would ask us to look forward in this new year with faith, with hope, with love. He would say fear, not. And this is what I know of him, the man, when he was alive here on the earth, and I was born and growing up. I was a young woman when he passed away. And at that time, I married the next year. So I saw my uncle, along with my dad, my granddad, many of us. I was a youth organizer at the time, faced all of the evils with the light of true. truth and the love of God. And I'm really, people always say, what would he do? Fifty two years later, he would encourage us to love the Lord. Growing up, were there any stories that as, as your family gathers together now, that you

often tell about your uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What are, what are maybe some of those family stories that have been passed down? One of my favorite stories belongs to my mother, Mrs. Naomi Ruth Barber King, and she's a civil rights leader in her own right. She's still living. She's 90 years old. However, in the 1950s, evangelist Billy Graham was preaching all over the world, and we had much segregation in America.

So that segregation caused church services to be such that only one ethnic group would attend this church service. and across town one ethnic group would attend that church service. And all of that was going on. Evangelist Graham said, I'm not going to have any of those racist church services anymore. I'm going to invite this young man to minister with me, Reverend Dr. Martin the King Jr. So here the evangelist and a preacher come together,

Times Square, New York, around 1958 or so. And they actually minister together. Now, as I tell that, may say, well, then what happened just a few years later when he said in the letter from the Birmingham jail, the most segregated hour in America is on a sudden at 11 o'clock?

Well, racism didn't break, but that standard was raised by those two men. During that time, my uncle was also stabbed in the chest by a woman with a letter opener,

an African-American woman, because she didn't understand, didn't agree with his message, She was demented. And it is recorded, written that my uncle looked at her with compassion in his eyes while the chest was there, while the weapon was in his chest. And he says, what's wrong? They get my uncle to the hospital. The surgeon says if he had sneezed, he would have died. They removed it.

And so children wrote him, little school children, I'm so glad you didn't sneeze. Now here's the story. And my mother was talking to him on the phone because we were a very close family and daddy and Aclemel being brothers and all of that. ML, you okay? Well, if I had sneezed, I wouldn't be here. Well, I'm so glad you didn't sneeze. Then he says, hey, Naomi. As a matter of fact, they called her nini.

Would you send me one of those sweet potato pies you make? When Corey, he called Aunt Coretta Corey, when she comes up to see me, mother cooked that pie, got it on the airplane. he calls back a few hours later, the pie is still warm, and he's enjoying the pie. Now, that's a real family story. Yeah. I love that. The power pie. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Wow, what a beautiful story and powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that. So for you, as a young woman, watching your uncle, what was going through your head in your teens and early 20s as you're seeing? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., really lead the country forward. Are you at that time thinking, wow, I want to be a part of this? I want to do what he's doing. I was actually a part of it.

Our home in 1963 was bombed. That's the home of AD and Naomi King. It was a church parsonage. Uncle M.L. Martin Luther King, Jr., was planned. He was supposed to spend the night in our guest room. but it was almost like God spoke to him and said get up out of Birmingham

so that same night my uncle left the city all the places he would have stayed were bombed the home of an attorney the home of his brother and the home of the AG Gaston Motel

at our home our home was bombed in 1963 I became a youth organizer my daddy took me to marches with my brothers, the youth march, the children's march, et cetera.

When our home was bombed, the night before Mother's Day, we were in the home. So I became a youth organizer. So not only did I have a chance to observe my very famous uncle, supported by many, my daddy and many,

I became a part of that movement as well. But I always would just peep and look around and try to understand what was going on. Was it real? Was what he was preaching real? Because I was able to go to church and hear his sermons as well.

And I would say, he's preaching about love, but these people are trying to kill him. And so as I observed and watched, saw him live that life. His father talked about the least of these Daddy King. My daddy, his brother, the miracles of Christ. Martin Luther King, Jr., the love of God being the most full. voiceful answer in the universe. So I grew up with that message. It has been challenged in my life many, many, many times.

It's been challenged right now in the 21st century here in 2020. I've lost people to COVID. Many of us have been impacted by COVID. I guess I could even ask who hasn't been, really. But we remember that we should fear not. We should not fight each other. other we should fight to live. We shouldn't have arguments about who took a shot, who didn't take a shot, why did you take it,

why didn't you take it, what color is your skin, my race is better than yours when the Bible is very clear, Act 1726, and Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this same truth, that we got one blood, one race. In his own lifetime, he spoke that. He taught Acts 1726. It led him to say, we must learn to live together as brothers and our ladies, sisters, or parish together. So he didn't say neighbors, cousins, friends, he said brothers. And that message, one of the most important that needs to be spoken right now, needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

You were talking about, you know, what we're facing today and the current challenges. And one of the things that we have talked a lot about on this podcast is critical race theory. And you have been very vocal in your opposition to critical race theory. Why? I am so glad to explain why I oppose a critical race theory. The problem that we have had prior to an election in Virginia, When parents said, nope, we're going to stand up. We're not going to teach hate and division.

The way that critical race theory was being presented at the time is that, oh, we just need to teach critical race theory. And if you don't teach it, you're a racist. Throw that comment out with no explanation as to what critical race theory is causes division. And so I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah, let's teach critical race theory, but let's teach what it is, that it was socially engineered by Marxists and socialist by people who don't believe in God, the evolutionist. Charles Darwin said that there was a superior race of humans, and everybody else's brain was smaller, and they were inferior. and black people are the low end of the feeding chain. Teach that when you teach that there was a science,

a philosophy that divided the human race, the one-blood human race according to skin color, and attempted to make one ethnic group superior, write that in your history books. And the more we begin to say that, you realize did that those who were supporting teaching critical race theory all of a sudden, oh, no, we didn't come up with that. That's not our idea, our idea, because they don't want us to know.

And when I say, though, they, it has nothing to do with skin color. It has to do with hard attitude. Because, you know, there's one blood, one human race. Skin color should not divide us. It's just ethnicity that should be celebrated. Yeah. So if Dr. Martin Luther King would have opposed critical race theory, then what do you think his response would be for us today? What would he be advocating that we are teaching in the schools?

And how would he be directing us to respond to this moment in history when we are seeing race be a real issue? I believe I don't even have to speculate on what Martin Luther King Jr. would say because he said that during his lifetime, He wrote it, he said it, he spoke it. And he talked about a day when there would be no white power, no black power, only God power, working in human power. And he very clearly wrote that, stated it. He taught Act 1726 that we are one blood. And that's the explanation on how you live together as brothers and sisters, because you accept each other as one human race. So this is not a new concept.

This has been in Acts 1726 for thousands of years now. He taught that during his lifetime. This is not new. So I never have to say what would Martin Luther King Jr. say any more than I have to say. What would Abraham Lincoln say or Frederick Douglass say? All we have to do is to read their own messages. And, you know, Uncle Mel lived in a time that was modern enough to let us hear his speeches as well. Yeah, that is a blessing. That really is. Now, we are at the beginning of a new year, 2022. What do you think is the biggest issue facing our nation this year?

Fear is the biggest issue facing America and all around the world today. When we fear, we shut ourselves in, we shut ourselves away from love, from communication. When we fear, we are not in faith. and therefore our connection with God is not as clear as it could be. God will never forget us, never leave us or forsake us. Jesus promised that. But fear will divide us and cause us to perish. Lack of knowledge. Our people perish for lack of knowledge. So that is a message that I just have to keep giving us.

Fear not. Fight to live. Don't fight each other. Yeah. Yeah. That's just so important and love each other. Love covers a multitude of sins. On one of the issues that you have been so vocal on, you have spoken about the importance of love on is that of the issue of abortion. You are a leader, a strong leader and have been for decades in the pro-life movement. What were Dr. King's views on abortion? Martin Luther King, Jr. once said the Negro cannot win if he's willing to sacrifice the futures of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety.

Now, abortions occur for reasons of personal comfort and safety. Some people feel threatened. Some people feel that they won't be able to live or eat or finish school or they're not happy in a relationship. So all of these factors sometimes cause people. to abort their children. In that process, we have gone into a position of fear and doubt

rather than embracing life from the womb to the tomb. Michael King Jr. explained that in that statement, he also said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And so I often ask the question and people

have heard me say it. I say, the woman has a right to choose what she does with her body. The baby's not her body. Where is the lawyer for the baby? How can the dream survive if we murder our children? I had abortions without that understanding myself. I repent that. God has forgiven me.

I've been healed. And I have a voice now to explain these truths to others. Well, and of course this year it's critical that we really be speaking out on the life issue talking about the importance and the beauty of life. Because as we know in December, the Supreme Court heard arguments for a case, the Dobbs case, that could overturn Roe v. Wade. And probably this summer, we're going to learn the Supreme Court's decision on that case. So as you look forward and think about the pro-life movement right now in this moment, what is your message to the pro-life movement? As we in America pray and repent, I even have a book, America Returns, to God, along with the book,

We're not colorblind, and all of those books. We see as we are praying, prayer is changing us. And as we change, the tide turns, as in the Dobbs case, which could send the issue of abortion back to the states.

We see the heartbeat bills that are passing. Texas being an example. So our responsibility as individuals, and then those of us with a platform, we can take it even further and broadcast it, you know, more clearly across more frequencies. But we have to pray, repent, ask God to forgive us for our sins, which include abortion, absolutely.

And then once we are forgiven, to begin to tell and proclaim the truth to others. So individually, here in America, and as we say on Martin Luther King Day, it's a time to stop, but day on and not a day off. Serve God, serve others. And as we're serving, remember the little baby's in the womb. Remember the poor, the sick, the elderly. Don't even leave out the wealthy. People need the Lord. And as we proclaim life and liberty in that pursuit for happiness, as we love God and repent for our sins, then we can look for. further into this year 2020 with hope, not fear. And we can learn to love each other as brothers as sisters and not perish as fools. How can our listeners follow your work and the work of

Speak for Life.org, alvedaking.com. And I'm also the chairman of the Center for the American Dream with the America First Policy Institute. And if you don't mind, I'd like to also mention that I have a show on Fox Nation called Alveda King's House. We nourish the spirit, the soul, and the body. Excellent. Dr. Alveda King, thank you so much for your time. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Happy New Year. And that's going to be it for today's MLK edition of the Daily Signal podcast, you can find the podcast on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All of our shows are available at dailysignal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.

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