Youth Leaders Talk Bringing MLK’s Legacy Of Nonviolence To Online Communities

Youth leaders addressed online trolling, bullying, and abuse.

A panel of accomplished young leaders and activists started a week of events leading to the upcoming 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, connecting the violence and abuse experienced by youth in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement with online trolling, bullying, and abuse of young people passionately advocating for change via social media platforms today.

“We’re not here to talk about going viral; we’re here to talk about going brave,” said Dorothy Jeanius STEAM Leadership Institute Founder and CEO Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman, who made headlines in 2023 by earning a doctorate in behavioral health from Arizona State University at age 17. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that courage is not the absence of fear. It’s choosing love, truth, and responsibility anyway. Today, that courage doesn’t just show up on our streets—it shows up on our screens.”

Tillman and Saundra Xiong, a freshman at the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduate of the Beloved Community Leadership Academy EmpowHer program, co-moderated the“Streaming Courage—Building Safe Communities Online” panel to start the 2026 Beloved Community Global Youth Summit at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta on Jan. 14.

Amariyanna “Little Miss Flint” Copeny, the youth activist who raised awareness about the ongoing Flint water crisis; Uruguayan-American social media personality and nonprofit director Carlos Eduardo Espina; and music artist and social media influencer Jordan “Mr. Hotspot” Brown served as panel speakers.

The Beloved Community Global Youth Summit was presented by the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The King Center’s theme for this year’s activations and summit events is “Mission Possible 2: Building Community, Uniting A Nation, The Nonviolent Way.”

The Global Youth Summit was presented before an audience of more than 400 elementary and high school students from the Atlanta metro area.

The “Streaming Courage” session focused on how the young leaders on the panel face and overcome online violence in response to their social media activism. “This conversation is about building safe communities,” said Xiong, “spaces rooted in dignity, empathy, and accountability—even when the internet rewards outrage instead of care.”

Copeny, who was a pre-teen when her posts about the Flint water crisis gained national attention, was clear that taking a stand on social media can come at a high cost, including being attacked by adults.

“Speaking up did make me uncomfortable, especially on social media, and especially on Twitter [X],” she said. “I honestly don’t like using that platform to spread awareness, because it is full of racism, and it was grown adults who don’t know anything about me, spreading hateful rumors that have literally never been true.”

Echoing the nonviolent philosophies of The King Center, Brown stressed growing a social media audience by overcoming online hate with love and positivity.

“It’s really coming down to showing love to your neighbor,” he asserted. “And from there, you can see some type of growth…you’ll see the viewers going up, realizing that people were listening to your positivity, which will encourage you to keep doing more.”

“Realize that sometimes you hyperfocus on the negative, but the reality is, most people are going to support you,” said Espina. “Even though on social media you get a lot of hateful comments, no one has ever told me anything negative in person. Social media often amplifies negativity, but social media is not always a representation of the real world. If you do stuff for your community, there’s going to be a lot more people who support you, because I believe love multiplies. People feel that positive vibe; that’s what attracts them to you. Just do what you do and stand up for what you believe in.”

Other programming included guided tours of the National Center for Civil Rights; a screening of the short film, mHoops, Hopes & Dreams, about how a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used basketball to activate young people for the Civil Rights Movement; and a panel featuring King Center CEO Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, music artist and producer 2Chainz and his son Halo, moderated by speaker and TV host Ryan Cameron.

“We need you to understand the movement that my father led,” Dr. King said as she urged the youth in attendance to live out her father’s principles of nonviolence in pursuit of social change. “I want to challenge you all to go a little bit deeper with understanding Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, because they left us with some wisdom—more than ‘I Have A Dream.’ They left us with some teachings, and these teachings can help you with your everyday life, with your family, with your friends, with your neighborhood, and in society. We do this summit to connect [young people] with the real legacy, the authentic legacy, of Dr. King.”