Martin Luther King III on MLK Day: “There’s so much to do”
The inauguration ceremony for 2025 will be on the same day as this year’s MLK Day. Martin Luther King III looks back at the state of the nation.
When news broke that Donald Trump was the target of an attempted assassination at a campaign rally last summer, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son was one of the voices that condemned the violence.
“Political violence has no place in our society and our country,” Martin Luther King III wrote in X’s post. “It undermines the foundations of our democracy.”
The second child of the country’s most prominent civil rights icons knows too well the cost of political violence. When he was 10, his father was murdered on a Tennessee balcony and became part of a group of leaders, activists and Democratic politicians who were assassinated in the 1960s.
“If President Kennedy, Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, Dad and Robert Kennedy lived, we would be on a completely different track,” King said. “These were all people who were cut back at such a critical time, not just in our country, but in terms of where they were headed.”
Last July, Trump was injured when an assassin bullet grazes his ears. He won the election and resumed his presidency.
He shared the 2025 inauguration day with Martin Luther King Jr. His life and legacy is celebrated every January on a federal public holiday.
However, the king says there is a large bay between his father and the president.
In an interview with USA Today, he lamented the country’s current trajectory.
“In general, in our country there is a desire to care for good, righteousness, our fellow people,” King said. “We’re taking part in a course that appears to be temporarily out of the quilter. At some point, we need to make course revisions.”
“What can each of us do?”
Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke about creating “The Beloved Community,” a society where “men can live together without fear,” as he wrote in his 1966 essay.
Today, his 67-year-old son says he will build the community as a key and continuous effort.
He has a dedicated partner to Earndrea Waters King, the wife of his wife, president of the Drum Major Institute, a nonprofit founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961.
The pair launched last year’s Realize The Dream initiative, a national movement aimed at encouraging 100 million hours of work by January 2029. King and Water’s King, along with the brothers Mark and Craig Kielberger, released a book entitled “What Is My Legacy?” And the accompanying podcast called “My Heritage.”
The Kings participated in a video interview with USA Today on May 19th. This was a follow-up to a conversation with a 2024 publication that led to a controversial presidential election.
In August, Waters King told USA Today that he felt the country was “terribly divided.” Four months after Trump’s second term, she said she still is.
“When you think about most frightened immigrants, in some cases, for kids to go to school. Schools, churches, hospitals – they should all be safe places and times,” Waters King said. “Whenever we start someone else and remove their humanity, we go down slippery slopes.”
In the conflict, King said he would look at an example set by his father, who has faced threats to his life over the years of his political activities.
In 1958, in a book signed in New York City, Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed by Isola Curry, a woman who was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“After he was stabbed, King spoke about his father.
“That’s why,” he added. “I think it’s what I’m saying. I’m sure a lot of people are worried about the possibility of political violence. But what should we do not do to prevent political violence from appearing and happening?”
In the public’s eyes
A few days after his new term, President Trump signed an executive order seeking government files related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and King Jr., and was released “without delay.”
The King Family opposed the release, saying they wanted an opportunity to review the files before they were released.
The descendants of the civil rights icon refused to speak to concerns about the file in an interview, including this recent sit-in with USA Today. They say it is a deeply personal subject.
When asked how he felt about the spotlight of his life as a result of his father’s excellence, King told USA Today, “It’s my life. This is what I know.”
“It’s certainly always easier to navigate life without realizing it,” he continued. “But I am grateful for the opportunity to nurture this incredible legacy we have, and perhaps I am grateful and grateful that the daughter we want to engage in is engaged.”
King and Water’s King have a 17-year-old daughter, Yolanda Renee King, 17, named after King’s late sister.
Legacy is a sloop line of King’s work, and we’ll be looking at it for the next four years and even generations. In considering how they hope to be remembered, both said they are steadily building on the foundation set by King’s mother and father.
“We all have a legacy. We all have a voice,” Waters King said. “It’s literally about what we do and how we build our lives every day.”
