Bernice King Fires Back at Ted Cruz’s Criticism of Florida Travel Advisory
Bernice King, the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, is setting the record straight after Sen. Ted Cruz took to social media and called the NAACP’S travel advisory “bizarre” and “utterly dishonest.”
The NAACP issued the travel advisory, warning Black people to steer clear of traveling to Florida as a direct response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts to eliminate African American history and programs implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the NAACP said in a press statement released on May 20. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
Cruz tweeted his perspective on the NAACP’S warning, saying, “Today, Dr. King would be ashamed of how profoundly they’ve lost their way,” insinuating today’s leaders are not upholding the “good” that NAACP leaders in the 1950s and 1960s did.
This is bizarre. And utterly dishonest.
In the 1950s & 1960s, the NAACP did extraordinary good helping lead the civil rights movement.
Today, Dr. King would be ashamed of how profoundly they’ve lost their way. https://t.co/F9EAiEfDP6
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 21, 2023
“What my father would be deeply concerned about is the harmful, discriminatory legislation in Florida,” King responded to Cruz’s statement, attaching a photo of her father.
The NAACP calls for supporters of the effort to visit the NAACP website and join forces to “defeat the regressive policies of this Governor and this state legislature.”
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