King’s daughter to run civil rights organization

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:01:19 GMT

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The Rev. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., has been elected as the next president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Ms. King will be the first woman president of the SCLC, a civil rights organization that was co-founded by her father.

King, a minister at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside Atlanta, defeated the other candidate for president, the Rev. Wendell Griffen, an Arkansas pastor and former appellate judge.

After its foundation in 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was for years one of the most influential civil rights groups in the United States, with a reputation for organizing effective non-violent direct-action protests.

Under Martin Luther King’s leadership, the group played a key role in the ratification of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned racial segregation.