Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas verbally attacked a fellow black woman during a House hearing on Tuesday — but ended up getting the worst of the encounter.

Dr. Alveda King, niece of civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr. , responded by exhibiting her uncle’s nonviolent temperament.

In a House Judiciary Committee hearing on allegedly criminal behavior by the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, Crockett accused Republicans of calling Alveda King as a witness in order to confuse people into thinking that she represents MLK’s legacy.

The 75-year-old daughter of MLK’s younger brother — a woman known to publicly take President Donald Trump’s side — later had the opportunity to rebuke Crockett, albeit with a heavy dose of Christian charity.

“You want to tell people of color who is fighting for who?” Crockett told her Republican colleagues in a clip posted to the social media platform X. “People of color do not feel comfortable or welcomed within your party.”

Meanwhile, Alveda King — who holds an honorary doctorate in law from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire — sat in the witness chair a few feet away.

“That’s why you have to parade someone who has the name ‘Dr. King’ attached to them so that people can be confused because I have been reading the comments online and people are like, ‘who is this Dr. King?'” Crockett added.

Do you agree with Alveda King’s message?

Yes: 100% (14 Votes)

No: 0% (0 Votes)

Then, the congresswoman implied that Alveda King has no claim to her uncle’s legacy.

“Because you want them to believe,” Crockett continued, addressing Republicans, “that somehow she espouses who Dr. King was.”

Finally, the congresswoman complained that Republicans have not invited other King family members.

A Republican representative eventually gave Alveda King a chance to respond — and she did it in a Christian manner.

“Congresswoman,” Alveda replied later in the hearing, as shown in a second clip posted to X, “I am a bit emotional. I’m going to watch what I say. But it seems as though you have suggested that I am a bastard to the King family legacy. I am legitimately the daughter of Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King and Dr. Naomi Ruth Barber King. We are a family who loves God. And I love you. God bless you.”

Republican Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina then noted that Crockett had left the room.

Readers may view both clips side-by-side in the X post below.

🚨’BASTARD TO THE KING FAMILY LEGACY’

Rep. Jasmine Crockett mocked @JudiciaryGOP for deciding to “parade someone who has the name Dr. King” to “confuse” people.

So @AlvedaCKing responds: “You have suggested that I am a bastard to the King family legacy.”

But she is… pic.twitter.com/snsgQcj8x6

— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 9, 2026

Crockett often mentions race in a way that suggests very little has changed in the United States since the 1960s.

In March, the congresswoman lost her bid to become the Democrats’ 2026 Senate nominee for Texas.

Alveda King, meanwhile, has flesh-and-blood experience with the civil rights movement. Her own father — known as A.D. King — was in the room directly below his brother’s at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the day King was assassinated in 1968, as recounted in a 2014 report in The Seattle Times.

“They killed my brother. I’m gonna find out who did it,” Alveda recalled her father telling someone on the phone on July 20, 1969, The Seattle Times reported.

The next day, his son Derek found 38-year-old A.D. dead at the bottom of the family’s swimming pool. Naomi King, A.D.’s widow, concluded that someone had murdered her husband. Alveda reached the same conclusion, according to the report.

(However, Andrew Young, himself a civil rights veteran, close King aide and the first black mayor of Atlanta, told the newspaper he thought A.D. King more likely died of a heart attack.)

Crockett did not say how her own experience — as a child of affluence — made her a more authentic voice for American blacks than Alveda King.

The SPLC stands accused of fraud in fundraising by collecting money to fight racism and then paying members of hate groups to engage in racist activity.

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Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.

Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.