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At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.

Bernice King

You will encounter misguided people from time to time. That’s part of life. The challenge is to educate them when you can, but always to keep your dignity and self-respect and persevere in your personal growth and development.
BERNICE KING

Challenge Development Education Growth Guide Life People Perseverance Time Yourself
King-ian nonviolence is a way of thinking and living and is not confined to the work of social and systemic change.
BERNICE KING

Change Live Social System Thinking Violence Way
Daddy taught us through his philosophy of nonviolence, which placed love at the centerpiece, that through that love we can turn enemies into friends. Through that love, we can create more dignified atmospheres.
BERNICE KING

Atmosphere Creation Father Philosophy Teaching Violence
Refuse to be disheartened, discouraged, distracted from your goals in life.
BERNICE KING

Encourage Goal Life Refusal
Before my mother was a King, she climbed trees and wrestled with boys. And won. Even as a child, Coretta Scott demonstrated that her gender would not deter her success, nor did it detract from her strength.
BERNICE KING

Children Climb Demonstration Mom Strength Success Tree
Environmental injustice is a tangible, intolerable example of an exhibited moral laxity and minimal concern for healthy standards by corporations and political structures based on the race, ethnicity, and class of those being impacted.
BERNICE KING

Environment Health Impact Injustice Minimal Moral Race Standard
If people want to criticize me, that’s their issue.
BERNICE KING

Criticism Issues Myself People
One person cannot be blamed for years of problems as it relates to race in America. This is something that has been with us since the founding of this nation. I mean, we were founded with slaves.
BERNICE KING

Blame Foundation Myself Nation Person Problem Slave
Some people feel like I’m arrogant. It’s unfortunate, because people don’t know my heart.
BERNICE KING

Arrogant Feeling Heart Myself People Unfortunate
In addition to a stronger focus on better training for law enforcement, America urgently needs programs to provide jobs and educational opportunities in economically depressed communities.
BERNICE KING

Addition Community Depression Job Need Program Strong Training
My mother and Ethel Kennedy became good friends and worked together on a number of causes they had shared with their husbands. They together co-chaired ‘A Time to Remember’ to mobilize a movement for gun control.
BERNICE KING

Control Friendship Goodness Mom Movement Togetherness Work
Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.
BERNICE KING

Emotion Force Justice Love Moral Powerful Weakness
Somehow, we have to realize that what we watch and what we listen to not only often reflects our most violent tendencies but cultivates more violence.
BERNICE KING

Listening Ourselves Realization Reflection Violent Watch
Occasionally, in the afternoons, I catch a movie, watch football, go to Sunday brunch, or visit with family and friends.
BERNICE KING

Family Food Friendship Movie Myself Occasion
I think the most pressing issue in our community is probably a generational divide.
BERNICE KING

Community Division Generation Issues Myself Thinking
People have labeled me homophobic. If I was homophobic, I wouldn’t have friends who are gay and lesbian, so that can’t be true.
BERNICE KING

Friendship Label Myself People True

At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.

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At Grinnell College, for the first time in my life, I was in an all-white setting. It was a shocking experience.

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