Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BLACK LIVES
Four thousand miles away, a family in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US, huddled around their TV screen and watched Britain’s Black Lives Matter protests unfold.
What they saw made their spirits soar. This trio had watched repeatedly over the past fortnight with a combination of pride and hope – and fear, when violence flared – as similar protests reacting to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, swelled across America, including a few miles from their home.
But there was something particularly powerful about the largely peaceful UK scenes.
“What was so encouraging to me was the crowds weren’t all black Britons marching – you had black Britons, a lot of white Britons, Asian Britons, you had a real cross-section of people coming together in Britain saying, ‘This is enough,”’ explains Arndrea Waters King.
“We have felt supported and inspired by what we have seen in the UK,” adds her husband, Martin Luther King III.
This family, of course, has especial reason to be buoyed by the global demos they are seeing in the face of 46-year-old Floyd’s death on May 25, which exemplifies deep-rooted discrimination across the US, and the world.
Human rights advocate Mr King is the son of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, whose campaign for civil rights for African Americans was brought to a tragic halt 52 years ago with his assassination by James Earl Ray, on April 4, 1968.
And 12-year-old Yolanda, sitting serious next to her parents, is the iconic figure’s only grandchild, who wishes she could have met her “Papa King” and “sat on his knee”.
Poignantly, she turned 12 the day Floyd died – and more than ever, feeling confused and angry, she would love to speak to her grandfather.
In the UK, protests have at times turned to violence. Last weekend crowds in Bristol tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston. While the Kings do not condone violence, they advocate a different way, but are empathetic.
“I always believe there is a way to get things done, the right way, but people are emotionally frustrated right now. I certainly concur with the spirit,” says Mr King, 62. “These statues belong in museums. The public has to acknowledge its history. I just don’t believe they are symbols that represent unification of communities so don’t belong on the outside. They don’t belong in places of honour.
“My father used to say a riot is the language of the unheard, and while he never condoned violence