ATLANTA — After a political ad was posted online using images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jackie Robinson by the re-election campaign of President Donald Trump, King's daughter, Bernice King, called the use of the images "beyond insulting."
Robinson's daughter, Sharon Robinson, said that the family of the baseball legend was also insulted by the ad.
The digital video ad shows images of Dr. King and Robinson and is titled "We will never surrender America." The ad is subtitled, "Don't Bet Against Us."
"I find President Trump's use of my father's image in his political ad beyond insulting and not reflective of #MLK's commitment to creating the #BelovedCommunity. My father should not be used in ways strongly misaligned with his vision and values, @realDonaldTrump," Bernice King tweeted, in part.
"My father was working for an America with leaders who have answered the call to conscience and compassionate action. He said, 'We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom…a time like this demands great leaders.' America needs this type of leader NOW," she continued.
Sharon Robinson also posted a tweet expressing her family's anger and insult.
"Jackie Robinson's family strongly objects to the use of Jackie Robinson's image in a Donald Trump (ad)," she tweeted. "The Trump campaign is in opposition to all that Jackie Robinson stood for and believed in. We're insulted and demand that his image be removed!"
Jackie Robinson, a Cairo, Georgia native, broke the so-called "color barrier" to become the first Black baseball player to play in Major League Baseball when he started for the Brooklyn Dodgers in April 1947.