WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dr. Alveda King, full-time director of African-American Outreach for Priests for Life, daughter of civil rights activist Rev. A.D. King and niece of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., will discuss how her uncle and father would have viewed this generation's struggle for civil rights during a National Press Club Newsmaker press conference Jan. 7 at 10 a.m. in the Zenger Room.
Dr. King will address gun violence, abortion and the war on poverty at the event, which comes one week before what would have been slain civil rights leader MLK’s 86th birthday.
The author of numerous books, Dr. King’s most recent, “King Rules” addresses what she sees as the nation’s need for “genuine servant leaders” to counter “the forces of moral drift and empty relativism.”
She previously served as a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution and is a former member of Georgia’s House of Representatives.
Dr. King became a member of the Priests for Life pastoral team and director of its African-American Outreach after she met Father Frank Pavone, National Director, and the two of them shared their belief that the pro-life movement is the civil rights movement of the 21st century.
“The civil rights movement and the pro-life movement have the same heart and soul – the dignity and equality of every human life,” Father Pavone said. “Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues applied that truth to the evil of segregation. Today, pro-life activists apply that very same truth to the evil of abortion.”
Dr. King said she is honored and grateful to be asked to address Press Club members and D.C. journalists.
“My Uncle ML received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his non-violent campaign for human justice,” she said. “He resisted injustice and sought solutions through prayer and non-violent protest. I know if he could be with us, he would suggest those same paths to a peaceful solution to all the problems plaguing our society right now.”
The Newsmakers event is open to credentialed press and National Press Club members and is free of charge. No advance registration is required.
The National Press Club is at 529 14th St., NW. The Zenger Room is on the 13th floor.