MLK’s Daughter Got Somethin’ to Say About Viral Trump Inauguration Prayer

The attention Pastor Lorenzo Sewell has been receiving since his fiery, MLK-inspired prayer at the presidential inauguration hasn’t been all positive. Aside from internet trolls who dragged him to hell for his theatrics, the civil rights leader’s own daughter shared a unique reaction to the viral moment.

The Detroit-based pastor summoned his best 1960s civil rights leader impression as he bellowed the concluding lines of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to end his prayer for President Donald J. Trump. While many online critics accused him of making a mockery of the leader or plagiarizing his pivotal speech, King’s daughter took a different approach in her response.

Bernice King took to X to explain how, in reference to Sewell, she felt her father’s speech had been sensationalized so much, people have missed the message and thus, misinterpreted what King wished to convey.

“Its power and popularity (with focus on its conclusion) have been misused to weaken its clear messaging about ending racism, stopping police brutality, ensuring voting rights, and eradicating economic injustice,” she wrote. “Why didn’t Pastor Lorenzo Sewell pray these parts of the Dream during President Trump’s Inauguration?”

King also wrote that Project 2025, a radical conservative wishlist practically aimed at turning America back into a pro-white dictatorship, is precisely something that her father didn’t “dream” for. In fact, it’s quite baseless to shout “let freedom ring” when the president has already signaled his support behind what King called “inhumane legislation” to fuel oppression further.

“We need to get Daddy’s Dream right, while also realizing that, in his other speeches, sermons, and writings, including [Letter from Birmingham Jail], he provides the love-centered strategy and courageous path for realizing his Dream. – So keep praying…but don’t pray the Dream in pursuit of false peace, which cries for unity while decrying inclusive and equitable policies and practices.

I have a dream that one day, folks will quote Dr. King correctly … and in context.