By Tia Mitchell – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greg Bluestein – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AJC.com

The youngest child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said part of carrying on her father’s legacy is addressing economic disparities that had become a focus of his civil rights work at the time of his death.

Bernice King joined “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs and Stockton, Calif., Mayor Michael Tubbs for a convention event titled “MLK’s Economic Dream: Guaranteed Income as a response to Poverty and the Covid-19 Pandemic.” The session streamed on Facebook.

King said redistribution of wealth will help ensure all Americans have their basic needs met. She believes the resources already exist to implement universal basic income, but the hurdle now is building the political will to make it the law of the land.

“It’s having the heart and the humanity to realize that we want to make sure that everyone is able to have food to eat, that no one goes to bed at night without, that no one is without affordable housing, that people have adequate health care,” she said. “And for my father, he really felt that the direct way of dealing with it was through this annual income and not just piecemealing by addressing it one issue at a time.”