Comcast is trying to “dismantle” Civil Rights Act of 1866, MLK’s daughter says

Enlarge / Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and CEO of the King Center, speaks during the Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on January 21, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (credit: Getty Images | Paras Griffin )

As a case involving Comcast and an African American-owned TV network operator heads to the US Supreme Court, a daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. has accused Comcast of trying to "dismantle" the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Bernice King, MLK's daughter and CEO of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, wrote an open letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on Friday. She wrote that Comcast's argument at the Supreme Court would change the law to let businesses discriminate based on race.

"To alter the Act to accommodate discrimination against people based on race would reverse precarious progress in the freedom struggle, which my father was assassinated for leading and which my mother continued to join others in leading until her death," King wrote. She also told Roberts that "Comcast's ongoing pursuit to effectively dismantle a fundamental America[n] anti-discrimination law may be the legacy history forever associates [with] the company and your legacy of leadership."

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