Keynote speaker for MLK event reflects on message and controversial Tweet

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Tuesday night completed a week-long celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior.

The UNCW Upperman African-American Cultural Center held a discussion of continuing civil rights work. The keynote speaker Bakari Sellers is successfully known as the youngest african american politician in the country at age 22.

It was an inspirational night for many who came to hear Sellers at the Upperman Center hosted event.

Sellers talked about the need to continue Dr. King’s work to address injustice anywhere.

We caught up with sellers about his controversial and now deleted tweet about the weekend protest between Catholic High School students and a Native American elder in Washington D.C.

In the tweet, Sellers called the teen in the standoff with the elder “deplorable” and went on the say “some pple can also be punched in the face.”

Sellers took the tweet down and has since turned the story around as a push for better conversations to take place in the community.

“For me it’s coming to auditoriums like this showing people and living by an example that you want to carry on Dr. King’s legacy,” said Sellers. “I think we’ll do that. I think many times we get caught up in the heat of the moment with that social media dominates the world that we live in today.”

Sellers addressed a packed Kenan Auditorium during the event titled “When tomorrow is Today: The Fierce Urgency of the Now!”.

He says he hopes there comes a time where that elder and the students sit down to try to have a better understand of one another.

“To have a conversation like this tonight I think is very healthy,” said Sellers.