King daughter to run rights group

Bernice King says she will continue her parents' legacy

The daughter of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King has been elected president of a civil rights group co-founded by her father.

Bernice King will be the first woman to lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which her father headed until his murder in 1968.

Ms King said her election would be a continuation of her father's legacy.

She beat Wendell Griffin, the first black lawyer to work for a major Arkansas law firm, to the post.

After its foundation in 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was for years one of the country's most influential civil rights groups with a reputation for organising effective non-violent direct-action protests.

Under Martin Luther King's leadership, the group played a key role in the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned racial segregation.

In recent years, however, the organisation has suffered from infighting - with some members in Florida threatening to secede - and controversy brewing over the president of a branch in California backing gay marriage.

Ms King, a motivational speaker and Baptist minister, said running for the presidency of the SCLC was "a destiny call" and that the hand of God was leading her.

She will be the third member of the King family to preside over the SCLC. Her brother, Martin Luther King III, was president from 1998 to 2003.

A date has not yet been set for Ms King to take up her new post.