MLK III reflects on his father’s life and legacy

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain 56 years 
ago. His son, Martin Luther King III, was in
Memphis on April 4 to commemorate his father. 
Photo by Wiley Henry

MEMPHIS, TN – While addressing a dense crowd in the courtyard of the National Civil Rights Museum on the evening of April 4, Martin Luther King III wasn’t sure if he could keep his composure if he was still speaking at 6:01 p.m. That’s when an assassin’s bullet ended the life of his father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

King, his wife Arndrea Waters King, and the Reverend Dr. Dorothy Sanders Wells were in Memphis on that day to commemorate Dr. King during a ceremony at the museum entitled “Remembering MLK: The Man. The Movement. The Moment.”

“Dad was killed this day…this is Thursday…56 years ago at 6:01 p.m., just 30 or so minutes from now,” said King, clearly welled up with emotions.

“This is a challenge to stand here at the spot that my father walked out of the room here behind me and lost his life,” said King, who was 10 years old in 1968 when tragedy struck his family and turned their lives topsy-turvy.

“He didn’t see me graduate from high school or from his beloved Morehouse College. He didn’t get the chance to meet my wife, or our daughter (Yolanda Renee King), or so many other things,” said King, chairman of The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit progressive think tank founded in 1961. 

Arndrea Waters King also said it was difficult for her family to stand next to room 306 and deliver remarks about her father-in-law, whom she has never met. Nevertheless, her reflections were just as heartfelt. 

“We’re here today to remind America that the Dream is alive, that love is alive, that hope is alive,” she said. “We’re here to remind America that no matter how difficult the days are, how dark it may seem, those words still ring true that Martin Luther King Jr. reminded all of us on April 3, 1968.”

Dr. King didn’t make it to the mountaintop, she said, referencing his prophetic speech at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ on the eve of his death. “But he ignited in each and every one of us a vison and a dream.” 

Arndrea Waters King is president of the progressive think tank. She said it is up to each one of us in 2024 to do our part in making Dr. King’s global vision of “The Beloved Community” a reality for all of God’s children.

“We’re here today because we’re a strong people. We are a mighty people. We’re here today to remind America that we will continue to stand until all the triple evils of racism, bigotry, poverty, and violence are things of the past,” she said.

Wells addressed the issue of Dr. King’s life and legacy through the prism of a pastor. Dr. King was a Baptist preacher who once pastored Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

“It was with a pastor’s sense of justice that Dr. King employed us to follow the commandments that have been given to us by our creator so that all would be well with us to love God, to be truthful in all of our dealings, to eschew violence,” said Wells, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Germantown, TN.

Wells noted in Micah 6:8 in the Bible that we should “…do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God,” and added that all children should be judged “not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character, which is the essence of our creative being.”

Meanwhile, King asked a pointed question: “What is wrong with society that chooses to remove someone who was only promoting love?”

He concluded by saying that we haven’t learned anything from his father’s teachings. “Dad told us we must learn nonviolence or we may face nonexistence,” he said.  

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