On Tuesday, Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, spoke out on Twitter about the way people use her mother’s name. “My mother wasn’t a prop,” she wrote. “She was a peace advocate before she met my father and was instrumental in him speaking out against the Vietnam War. Please understand … my mama was a force.” The post included a link to a piece Bernice wrote in 2017, where she talked about her mother’s activism and credentials outside her relationship with her husband.
Bernice’s post seems to refer to a recent Good Morning America interview with Jonathan Majors, who was convicted in December on two domestic-violence charges after an altercation with his ex-girlfriend, choreographer Grace Jabbari. During his trial, prosecutors played a recording that Jabbari took during one incident where she says Majors lost his temper, during which he told her to “live up to the standards of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King’s wife, and Michelle Obama.”
Speaking about the recording with GMA, Majors explained that he was “trying to give an analogy of what it is I’m aspiring to be, you know, these great men — Martin, President Obama.” Elsewhere in the interview, he gushed about his current girlfriend, actress Meagan Good. “She’s held me down like a Coretta,” he said. “I’m so blessed to have her.”
The Cut has reached out to Dr. Bernice King for further comment and will update this post if we hear back.
