On the holiday that honors her father, Bernice King wants people to remember another important figure: her mother, Coretta Scott King.
"As you honor my father today, please honor my mother as well," King, the daughter of the late Martin Luther King Jr., wrote on Twitter Monday. "She was the architect of the King Legacy and founder of @TheKingCenter, which she founded less than three months after Daddy died."
The King Center is an organization that teaches nonviolent philosophy in memory of the late civil rights leader.
Without her mother, "there would be no MLK Day," she continued.
A few hours later, she commented that her mom's name was trending on Twitter.
Then, she followed up in the afternoon with another tweet of appreciation for people's "words of encouragement."
"Pausing mid-day to say THANK YOU," she wrote. "I’ve found here today some great words of encouragement for me and expressions of genuine honor for and celebration of my parents. I love you."
As people across the country took to social media to honor her father, King also wanted to remind them that he wasn't always so loved.
"Please don't act like everyone loved my father," she wrote. "He was assassinated. A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America. Most hated. Many who quote him now and evoke him to deter justice today would likely hate, and may already hate, the authentic King."
Another one of the couple's children, Martin Luther King III, also shared his thoughts on his dad's legacy, along with an old photo.
"My father's dream is not just a speech he gave or an idyllic view of what could be," he wrote on Instagram. "My father's dream is something we must all choose each and every day to work towards. Together, we are all my father's legacy."
Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King had two other children: Dexter King and Yolanda King, who died in 2007, one year after the death of her mother.
The King Center shared many old family photos to pay tribute to the late activist.
Monday would have been his 92nd birthday.
