Bernice King is glad Trump’s inauguration falls on her father’s holiday. She sees it as a wake-up call

The youngest child of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr didn’t want Donald Trump to become the next president — but Dr Bernice King believes Trump’s inauguration taking place on the same day as the federal holiday honoring her father is a small win.

“I’m glad that if it was going to happen, it happened on the King holiday, because Dr King is still speaking to us,” she told The Independent. She sees the January 20 event as a wake-up call for the country and an opportunity to stand up to the incoming administration’s charged agenda items.

“We cannot retreat or recoil,” King said. “We have to commit ourselves to continuing the mission of protecting freedom, justice and democracy in the spirit of my father.”

King had been excited about the prospect of seeing Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Black and South Asian heritage, become the country’s first female president on MLK Day.

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She’d hoped the US would elect someone who embodied the values her father did. Not “someone who’s spewing hateful rhetoric, who’s not been very kind-hearted and whose policies are not humane in their approach,” as she described the president-elect.

She later added: “A Trump win could potentially set in motion a perilous and oppressive presidential administration that would undermine and deny the hard-fought battle for civil and human rights for which my parents and so many others sacrificed.”

Civil rights leaders like her are worried the incoming administration will attempt to scale back those rights. Trump has proposed a mass deportation plan, vowed to go after his enemies, and intends to implement discriminating federal policies against LGBTQIA+ people and people of color.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and NAACP have announced their commitment to fighting what may come next.

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“We are entering a new era of civil rights for better or worse,” Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia NAACP, said. “We have not seen an assault on civil rights like I believe is about to happen since the ‘50s, maybe even the ‘20s.”

The group is working to ensure Trump’s power does not go unchecked by bolstering its legal and lobbying teams. Griggs said he’s willing to give the president-elect a chance, but is concerned about some of his recent actions, like appointing former congressman Matt Gaetz as his pick for US attorney general. Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration on Thursday.

Under Trump, Griggs fears the Department of Justice’s civil rights division will be weaponized against minority groups.

“We have to be ready right now,” he said. “We are already having organizational meetings, both on the national level and the state level, to prepare the units for what’s about to happen.”

In a news release distributed the day after the election, the ACLU promised to defend against Trump’s deportation plan, provide counsel to whistleblowers and challenge any discriminatory policies and regressive plans on reproductive freedoms.

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King knows any pushback against the incoming administration will require the same level of dedication seen during her father’s movement, before the country had a Civil Rights Act or a Voting Rights Act.

In the weeks after the election, she’s been comforted by his famous words like, “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” something he said while delivering the famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

“I know a lot of people are angry right now,” King told The Independent. “But we can’t let that rot in us.”

Thousands of protesters are expected to descend onto the streets of Washington DC ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

The “People’s March on Washington” is scheduled for January 18. A coalition of organizations, including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the National Women’s Law Center, are planning the event to protest Trump’s stances that they fear will undermine civil rights.

On Inauguration Day, Al Sharpton’s National Action Network plans to hold a rally in the city.

“There has never been a more important time to peacefully mobilize and organize,” Sharpton said while announcing the event on MSNBC last week.

MLK Day has been celebrated on the third Monday in January since its establishment in 1983, while Inauguration Day has been set as January 20 since 1937. The late civil rights icon was assassinated in 1968.

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Griggs and King will spend the holiday attending events commemorating the late King’s legacy. As Trump takes the oath, Griggs wants the incoming president to consider the importance of the late icon in American history and not forget people in King Jr’s birthplace, Fulton County, are still waiting for an explanation on charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In August 2023, Trump was charged with racketeering and conspiracy for allegedly urging Georgia officials to sway the results in his favor. The case has been delayed after a December 5 hearing in the matter was canceled until further order from the court.

“It’s interesting,” Griggs said of the upcoming holiday. “The juxtaposition of a man of immense greatness, humility and concern for the community, with Donald Trump.”

Only two presidents have taken the oath on the holiday before: Barack Obama in 2013 and Bill Clinton in 1997. Obama used a Bible belonging to the civil rights leader in the ceremony.

The Independent emailed a Trump spokesperson asking whether the president-elect would incorporate King’s legacy into the ceremony but did not get a response.