Dr. King honored 50 years after Nobel Prize

December 10,2014

Civil Rights icons and community leaders honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tuesday night at the Carter Center.  The event commemorated the 50 year anniversary  of Dr. King's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Dr. King's daughter, Bernice King, served as one of the speakers.  She said her father's message is just as important today as it was during the 1960s. 

"It's almost as if we're being reminded over and over again--go back and listen to and try to embrace what Dr. King was saying to us 50 years ago," said King.

Bernice King explained that the current unrest over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner shows that people are still struggling to find common ground. 

"We must learn how to live together as brothers and sisters or we will all perish together as fools and we're at that place now," King said.  "We're being forced, I believe now more than ever before, to make some major adjustments and shifts in the way in which
we relate to one another." 

King said despite some of the violence that has erupted during recent protests, she believes her father's philosophy of non-violence is still the most powerful way to effect change. 

"I think that those that are children of light, as I would like to call them, have to be vigilant, have to be persistent and have to have their voices much louder than the others," shared King. 

The commemoration events continue Wednesday at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta.