Bernice King will now lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization her father, Martin Luther King, Jr., co-founded

From The Grio:

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference announced her election as its eighth president Friday morning. Interim President Byron Clay called King and said she accepted the position.

“In the spirit of your father, Martin Luther King Jr., we look forward with anticipation to your leadership,” Clay told King, 46, as reporters listened to his end of the conversation.

She could be heard responding, “Thank you very much.”

“SCLC is a great organization with a rich history,” Clay told reporters. “She is excited. I am excited. The nation will be excited.”

Charles Steele Steps Down as SCLC Chief
fter a half-decade as the productive leader of the civil rights group that Dr. Martin Luther King helped found, Charles Steele Jr. is stepping down. “The time is right for new leadership,” the 62-year-old Steele said Sunday. Read more here.

Fireman Can’t March After Inaugural Parade
A 17-year parade performance veteran can’t march again for six months after his behavior toward President Barack Obama. Did he give the commander-in-chief the finger? Quite the contrary, Ohio fireman John Coleman is accused of being overly friendly at Obama’s Jan. 20 celebration on Pennsylvania Avenue. What did he do? Read more here.

Civil rights icon will deliver the inauguration benediction. The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who helped found one of the nation’s largest and oldest civil right groups and marched aside the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to headline during inauguration ceremonies next month. Lowery, a stalwart of the Civil Rights Movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will deliver the benediction. He said Obama called to ask him to take part in the Jan. 20 ceremony but hadn’t decided exactly what role he would play. Obama said he’d get back to Lowery. “I guess this is his way of getting back to me,” Lowery said Wednesday afternoon. “I’m grateful to the president-elect for picking a small-town preacher like me to be on the program of such a historic inauguration. I’m humbled.” U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said through a spokeswoman, “I am very pleased that a minister like Rev. Joseph Lowery will play a powerful role in this inauguration.”

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Texas GOP bans vendor for racist buttons.

Texas Republicans have banned a vendor that hawked racist campaign buttons at their recent state convention. Officials say they were shocked that Republicanmarket.com would sell a pin that read: “If Obama is President … will we still call it The White House?”Said state GOP spokesman Hans Klingler: “We were stunned. That vendor will never be at another Republican convention again.” Speaking to The Dallas Morning News, Klingler added that his party screens vendors to make sure they do not sell objectionable merchandise, but “we don’t have a chance to go by and look at the merchandise they’re selling.”

SCLC calls for boycott of big gas companies. One of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organizations, which announced a boycott of five of the biggest oil suppliers in May is shifting its target from Exxon Mobile to Shell Oil. Before the boycott is over, the SCLC says it will also focus its attention on BP, Chevron Corp., and ConocoPhillips Co., for 30 days apiece. Others joining the SCLC in support of the boycott are Concerned Black Clergy of Metro Atlanta, the AFL-CIO, the Nation of Islam, Ghandi Foundation and the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. The boycotts are slated to last through mid-October. This is one way to tackle the “greed”of the major oil companies, SCLC President Charles Steele told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We understand the free market system,” Steele said. “We’re saying it’s a difference between making a profit and greed.” He says he hopes the boycott will force oil to cease with their multi-billion-dollar profits and lower prices.