Martin Luther King Jr. Nephew Appointed as President of Southern Christian Leadership Conference

By Josephine Vivaldo, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The nephew of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Isaac Newton Farris Jr. has been named president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Farris, son of King’s only surviving sibling, Christine King Farris and who also carries the title of President and CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change in Atlanta, had been named interim president of SCLC following the death of Rev. Dr. Howard W. Creecy Jr. last month, July 28.

The late Rev. Dr. Howard W. Creecy Jr. became the president of the organization on Jan. 30, 2011, after Bernice King, King’s youngest daughter, declined to take over the leadership.

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The SCLC, a civil-rights organization co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957 following the Montgomery Bus Boycott., has yet to make comments to the recent announcement.

During the conference, SCLC officials named Bernard LaFayette Jr., co-founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, as the national board chairman. The conference also appointed Don Cash, a Washington, D.C. labor official, as vice chairman, and Louisiana attorney Randal L. Gaines as acting vice president, according to AP.