Some awards shows exist to celebrate fame, and then there are nights like this, where recognition feels more like a responsibility than a red carpet moment.
The MLK Jr. Beloved Community Awards in Atlanta gathered social justice leaders, artists, and organizations under one big idea: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mission isn’t a memory. It’s a mandate.
Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center, took the stage with words rooted in the legacy of her parents, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Speaking beside a giant black-and-white projection of them, she called on the audience to choose what she described as “the nonviolent way,” especially in a world she said is strained by social and economic inequity, polarization and fear, and global conflict.
The event, formerly known as the Salute to Greatness Awards Gala, is as an Academy Awards-style ceremony that was held at Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency on Saturday night (Jan. 17,) and drew a crowd of roughly 1,000 guests. This year marks a major shift: for the first time in the event’s 41-year history, the ceremony will be broadcast nationally on BET in February. Aldis Hodge and Anika Noni Rose emceed the ceremony.
Among the night’s most recognizable honorees was Viola Davis, who received the Coretta Scott King Soul of the Nation Award from Bernice King. Davis used her moment to reflect on the child she once was, describing herself as the “chocolate girl with the thick lips and wide nose in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in 1965,” who didn’t see hope or dreams.
Other notable honorees included Billie Eilish, who received the Environmental Justice Award for sustainable tour practices, fashion activism, and an $11.5 million donation supporting climate justice and food equity organizations. LeBron James also received recognition through the Youth Influencer Award, accepted by his mother, Gloria James, on behalf of the LeBron James Family Foundation, which supports children and families in Akron, Ohio, through education initiatives, health care, and long-term stable housing.
Additional honorees included Sesame Workshop, Cisco Systems, Dorothy Jean Tillman, Warrick Dunn, Robert F. Smith, Kara Water, Dushun Scarbrough Sr., and others. Musical performances included Chance the Rapper and October London, followed by an Afterglow party featuring ConFunkShun.
There’s something powerful about watching the King Center widen the frame of what “beloved community” can look like in 2026 because the struggle for dignity doesn’t live in one lane anymore.
The honorees reflect the truth many Black communities already know: justice work is happening everywhere. It’s in classrooms and boardrooms. It’s in environmental movements and housing initiatives. It’s in the stories we tell on-screen, and the systems we build behind the scenes. And it’s in the decision to show up anyway, even when the world feels heavy.
Bernice King’s reminder that building community and uniting a nation “the nonviolent way” isn’t just a slogan. It’s a response to “terminal times,” as she called them. Not because things are easy, but because love, justice, and transformation are still possible.
And with this year’s ceremony becoming a national broadcast on BET, that message won’t stay inside one ballroom. It’s expanding outward, reaching the people who need it most.
Bernice King said it plainly: “We’re summoned to rise. We’re summoned to build. We are summoned to love.”
