Alveda King: Jasmine Crockett Suggested I’m a ‘Bastard to the King Family Legacy’

The niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. responded to a Democrat who attacked the House Judiciary Committee for inviting her to testify.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, claimed that the Republican majority on the committee invited Alveda King—who is often referred to as “Dr. King” to honor her doctorate in Applied Theology—to testify in order to sow confusion about where black people stand on policy issues.

“People of color do not feel comfortable or welcomed within your party, that’s why you have to parade someone who has the name Dr. King attached to them so that people can be confused,” she declared.

“You want them to believe that somehow she espouses who Dr. King was, yet you’ve yet to have [Martin Luther King III] come in here, you’ve yet to have Dr. Bernice King, the ones that were actually raised by Dr. King, the ones that actually probably understand the teachings of Dr. King,” Crockett added.

“I want to talk to y’all about what the Dr. King had to say about racism so that y’all don’t get it twisted and don’t get it confused just because you see the name sitting in this room,” she declared. She quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in writing, “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.”

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., gave Alveda King the opportunity to respond.

“Congresswoman, I am a bit emotional,” King said to Crockett. “I’m going to watch what I say, but it seems as though you have suggested that I am a bastard to the King family legacy.”

“I am legitimately the daughter of Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King and Dr. Naomi Ruth Barbara King,” she added. “We are a family who loves God, and I love you. God bless you.”

Fry wryly noted that Crockett left the room while King responded to her attack.

“Let the record reflect that the gentlelady from Texas left the room,” he said.

The exchange took place late in the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing about the Southern Poverty Law Center. Critics say the SPLC puts mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, saying the conservative Christian groups are “anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.”

The SPLC faces federal wire fraud charges relating to allegedly funding some of the Klan groups it says it exists to oppose. The SPLC claims the payments were part of an informant program and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

During her testimony, King said she rejects “the notion that Americans who hold traditional Christian beliefs should be treated as threats or terrorists, simply because we disagree with a prevailing political thought.”

Democrats in the hearing suggested Republicans oppose the SPLC because they support white supremacy.