COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nearly 56 years after his death, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy lives on through his prophetic words and actions.
Many people know him as a leader during the Civil Rights Movement. Donzaleigh Abernathy knows King a little differently.
"He was just love, and he was funny, he had the gift of mimicry,” said Abernathy, King’s goddaughter.
"I wanted to be like Uncle Martin, and I wanted to be like Daddy."
Her father, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, was right by King’s side throughout the Civil Rights Movement. The two endured many trying times together.
Abernathy was the keynote speaker for the 39th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Breakfast.
"He wasn't trying to lead a movement,” she said of her godfather. “He was just trying to do what was right and he realized he was needed, and Daddy used to say that they were ordinary put in an extraordinary circumstance and they rose to the occasion.”
Abernathy said she doesn’t believe King's dream of freedom has fully been achieved.
“I think that today, we've reached a huge part of that dream, and now there's a move to move the pendulum back the other way,” she said.
She said gun violence and racist acts are to blame for that. She said it falls back on people to fix the issue.
"We have to learn how to love ourselves and be grateful that we are the way that we are.”
Because that's the beauty of King's dream, Abernathy said. And that dream is within everyone's reach.