{"id":4269,"date":"2017-02-05T12:35:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T18:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maryville.edu\/mpress\/?p=4269"},"modified":"2023-04-17T14:30:11","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T19:30:11","slug":"interviewing-a-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maryville.edu\/mpress\/interviewing-a-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Interviewing a Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading time: 4 minutes<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recently delivered the 2017 address for Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵAPP\u2019s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. She inspired a full auditorium of students, faculty and staff, but one student had the opportunity of a lifetime to meet her hero up close.<\/p>\n

Jordan Coker, senior communications<\/a> major, was assigned to cover the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration for Pawprint, Maryville\u2019s student newspaper. As a reporter, she was invited to interview King following her presentation. The two met briefly in the Green Room, a small guest room located behind the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I have many heroes, there aren’t many African-American women,\u201d Coker said. \u201cI will remember the day I met a woman I aspire to be. I will remember the day I met a true American treasure with a truly pure heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

King serves as CEO of the King Center<\/a> in Atlanta, Ga., a resource and programming institution dedicated to advancing her father\u2019s work and legacy. Coker asked King questions about growing up as the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., how people can best respond to social injustices and inequality in America, and about King\u2019s own work in these areas. She was most impressed by King\u2019s answer to a question about whether she felt much was expected of her as the daughter of such a beloved public figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing talked about how her mother told her to not worry about what her father did or what her mother did, but to only worry about being her best self,\u201d Coker said. \u201cThat speaks to me, but more profoundly towards her. She did say, \u2018Who could do better than Dr. King?\u2019 so it is inspiring to hear that she felt comfortable making her own path in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coker doesn\u2019t intend to make journalism her career, but she does have long range goals that were crystallized while interviewing King.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am currently looking to start out in corporate communications, but moving forward it is important to me that I make an impact on the world for the better, much like King,\u201d she said. \u201cDown the road I see myself working on a communications team for an organization like the ACLU or the NAACP.”<\/p>\n

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Bernice King\u2019s Message<\/strong><\/p>\n

King encouraged the standing room-only audience to engage in meaningful conversations with diverse people\u2014especially those with whom we disagree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key going forward is for us to find a way, in all of our great and grand diversity, to create a pathway for us to coexist in this world we have been given,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

King reminded listeners of her father\u2019s challenge to learn to live together as brothers and sisters \u2013 or perish together as fools. \u201cHe encouraged us to look at the fact that we live in an interconnected world,\u201d King says.<\/p>\n

Our tendency today, she said, is to break those connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to grapple with our ideologies and belief systems, and many people are deciding when it\u2019s not what I want to hear I unfriend you, I cancel you, I cut off the link. I turn away from you. I shut you down,\u201d King said. \u201cThe very thing that we point out as being a problem, we are becoming. And that\u2019s why my father\u2019s philosophy and methodology are so important. Because the ground rules are community at all costs. That means I can\u2019t have a no-talk policy. That means I have to try to find a way to commit myself to keeping the dialogue going.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have a responsibility as citizens, King said, to \u201crise up and be willing to go into spaces and places where we traditionally have been afraid to go\u201d\u2014a message Jordan Coker took to heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most recent election was a turning point in my life,\u201d Coker said. \u201cBernice King inspired me and so many others, saying that we still have a\u00a0responsibility\u00a0as \u2018we the people,\u2019 and while so many others try to build walls, we must build bridges.”<\/p>\n

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