Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Kamala Harris will swear in Karen Bass as L.A. mayor, New York sees an uptick in out-of-state patients for abortions, and Bernice King realizes the power of her parents' legacy. Have a lovely Tuesday
- Lasting legacy. Most people, these days, are looking for purpose in their work. Bernice A. King says she was "born with purpose." Instead, her challenge was to make that purpose her own.
King is the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She serves as CEO of the King Center, which shares her father's teachings of nonviolent social change. She joined Fortune at our inaugural Impact Initiative conference in Atlanta last week.
"I appreciate being the daughter of such phenomenal people who not only changed the world but in their death are still changing the world," King told Impact Initiative attendees. "But I wanted my own identity. I wanted Bernice to stand out."
The path she chose didn't make that easy. King was "called to ministry" and worried she'd be seen as "just like [her] daddy." She went to law school to try to do something different but never practiced. She ultimately came to a realization: "God called me to continue a legacy the world needs," she said. "It's 55 years now since my father was assassinated. The world is still craving and looking to that legacy for answers. I now understand that I don't have to figure out why I'm here. I was born into a legacy."
In her role today, King seeks to carry on her parents' work—and uplift her mother, whom she hopes will be remembered for her own work to preserve MLK's legacy.
As others search for purpose in their own lives and work, King advises them to be authentic and honest. That applies to businesses, too. "Corporations are part of communities," she said. "For many years, corporations acted like they were in a silo, separate and apart from the community."
King thinks most people can benefit from following the advice her mother gave her. "You don't have to be me, you don't have to be your father," Coretta Scott King told a young Bernice. "But whatever you do in this life, be your best self."
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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