Martin Luther King III

The event marked the 45th anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" Speech and the first time an African American accepted the presidential nomination of a major party.

King said his father would be "proud of Barack Obama, proud of the party that nominated him, and proud of the America that will elect him".

However, he also warned that his father's dream would not be completely fulfilled even if Obama won the presidency, because the country was suffering from a poor health care system, education system, housing market and justice system, and that "we all have to roll up our sleeves and do work to ensure that the dream that he shared can be fulfilled".

Martin Luther King III (born October 23, 1957) is an American human rights activist, philanthropist and advocate.

Martin Luther King III was born on October 23, 1957, at St. Jude's Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama to civil rights advocates Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

His mother had reservations about naming him after his famous father, "realizing the burdens it can create for the child," but King Jr. always wanted to name his son Martin Luther III.

King's birth occurred as his father was speaking to members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he announced his son's name after being told of the birth.

King's birth caused much of his mother's time to be taken away from her artistry and she spent the remainder of his birth year caring for him and his older sister Yolanda.

Martin Luther King III has three siblings: Yolanda, Dexter, and Bernice.

They were raised in Vine City, an urban neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia.

When he was eight years old and only in the third grade, he began to endure racial comments and insults from a white boy in his class, who also happened to like to draw.

When he approached the boy and complimented him on a drawing of his, the harassment ceased.

King was ten years old when his father was assassinated.

Years prior to his father's death, Harry Belafonte set up a trust fund for King and his siblings.

King attended Spring Street Elementary School but transferred to The Galloway School following his father's assassination.

King received his B.A. degree in political science from Morehouse College in 1979, the same school where his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather attended.

King is a fraternity brother/member of Alpha Phi Alpha, as was his father.

King lived with his mother in his childhood home in Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood until his adulthood.

On June 26, 1985, King was arrested, along with his mother and his sister Bernice, while taking part in an anti-apartheid protest at the Embassy of South Africa in Washington, D.C. On January 7, 1986, Martin Luther King III and his sisters were arrested for "disorderly conduct" by officers deployed to a Winn Dixie supermarket, which had been the subject of some protesting since September of the previous year.

On June 9, 1986, he announced his candidacy for the Fulton County Commission, becoming the first of his father's immediate family to become directly involved in politics.

Alongside Kerry Kennedy, King opposed the death penalty in 1989, stating "If we believed in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, most of us would be without eyes and without teeth".

He won the election and was re-elected in 1990, serving from 1987 to 1993.

King was defeated in a special election for the chairmanship in 1993 to Republican State Representative Mitch Skandalakis by 55,264 votes (57.49%) to 40,867 (42.51%), an upset result which attracted national attention.

In 1993, King helped found the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. Inc., the company that manages the license of Martin Luther King Jr.'s image and intellectual property.

The elder son of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, King served as the fourth president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1997 to 2004.

King remains a commissioner in the company as of 2008.

During his service as a commissioner in Fulton County, King expressed appreciation to an officer who potentially saved his mother from harm from a crazed man.

Martin Luther King III spoke on behalf of the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama, at the Democratic National Convention on August 28, 2008.

In February 2009, King and his wife traveled to India, fifty years after his father and mother made the trip.

During his stay in India, King led a delegation, which included John Lewis and Andrew Young.

In New Delhi, King visited museums on Mahatma Gandhi's life and answered questions from students.

King denounced the war in Iraq and the Mumbai attacks during a lecture at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

On January 19, 2009, the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, King joined Obama in painting and refurbishing the Sasha Bruce Youthwork shelter for homeless teens in Northeast Washington for the nationwide day of community service.

Martin Luther King III gave a tribute at Michael Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009, and spoke at Jackson's funeral at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, alongside his sister, Bernice.

He also spoke as a campus guest speaker at SUNY Canton on February 23, 2010, at the College Union Board's invitation.

In 2019 King urged Texas to grant a reprieve to death row inmate Rodney Reed and in 2020 he urged Alabama to stop the Execution of Nathaniel Woods.

On Monday, February 3, 2020, Kenneth Starr, a member of President Donald Trump's legal counsel in the Impeachment Trial, quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Senate floor in his defense of the President.

Martin Luther King III responded in a public statement released the following day.

The Hill reported that "King accused the Trump administration of invoking his father while failing to address the political issues most important to him and his civil rights advocacy".

In his statement, King stated: "Martin Luther King Jr.’s name is synonymous with justice and fairness. He certainly believed that justice and fairness should be available to everyone. But what mockery, what hypocrisy, and rank opportunism to equate my father’s views about 246 years of enslavement and almost 100 year[s] of segregation and their client’s intent to undermine constitutional governance".