Dr. Bernice A. King, the outwardly strong thought-leader and ordained minister, revealed a a painful chapter from her young adulthood in a conversation with Natasha S. Alford, host of Masters of the Game.
As TheGrio reports, in her conversation with Alford, King shared that as a law student, the weight of grief and public pressure nearly pushed her to take her own life.
“I said, I’m going to law school for me, if nothing else. So in the middle of all that, I didn’t do well in law school, which hurt my heart,” she recalled. After two semesters, she was placed on probation. Facing the prospect of dismissal, King said she imagined headlines reading: ‘Dr. King’s daughter flunks out of law school.’
In a clip that has quickly garnered thousands of views, King says she was overwhelmed by the grief after the assassination of her father, the mysterious death of her uncle, and the tragic loss of her grandmother.
She speaks candidly about feeling unloved and overwhelmed by anger after years of unprocessed trauma.
“I went home, got a knife”
King revealed how she nearly harmed herself before divine intervention stopped her. “It was a lot to deal with,” King said. “So I went home, got a knife. And I was trying to figure out, how do I do this with no pain? And in the midst of it, I heard the voice of God say, put the knife down. People are going to miss you.”
King said her mother, Coretta, and her aunt Christine rushed to her side after her roommate called for help.
“I told them, at that time, I felt like nobody loved me. It wasn’t true. It was just what I felt,” King explained.
King said that the Holy Spirit’s intervention that night not only saved her life but set her on the path to ministry and service.
King an attorney and author, serves as CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center). Founded by her mother, Coretta Scott King, the organization promotes nonviolent social change through policy, advocacy, education and training.
King holds a Doctor of Law from Emory University, a Master of Divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Spelman College. She also received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Wesley College and Clinton College, and recently received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Spelman College.