Atlanta , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Bernice King , the youngest child of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr . , has been elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , a spokeswoman for the group said Friday . King , 46 , was elected as the SCLC 's first female president , said Renee Richardson . King 's father was SCLC 's first president . The organization was founded in 1957 . The other finalist for the post was former Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen , 57 , who lost his recent bid for re-election . Griffen , of Pine Bluff , Arkansas , is also pastor of New Millennium Church in Little Rock . King is a minister at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia , Georgia . She also is a motivational speaker and author . `` It is a destiny call , '' she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week . `` It is part of my father and mother 's legacy and a continuation of the legacy he started in the '50s and '60s through this organization . I believe that the hand of God is leading me . '' Her brother , Martin Luther King III , was president of SCLC from 1997 to 2004 . They and sibling Dexter King were locked in a bitter legal battle over their parents ' estates until late September , when a judge ordered them to begin negotiations . The three were able to reach a settlement . King succeeds the Rev. Byron Clay , who has been interim president since the Rev. Charles Steele Jr. resigned earlier this year . The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery led the group from 1977 until 1997 . The Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy was president from 1968 to 1977 . Ralph Luker , a retired history professor at Morehouse College and co-editor of the first two volumes of `` The Papers of Martin Luther King , '' says SCLC 's challenge going forward is giving the organization a sense of mission . `` There 's been ... no real vision , and that 's a dramatic change from its early years , '' he said . `` For too long it 's been a program here , had a cause there , but the group 's rationale for being has n't been clear . '' The group , which has chapters and affiliates throughout the country , has lobbied extensively on a variety of issues related to civil rights . CNN 's Debra Krajnak and Maria White contributed to this report .