Martin Luther King, III, 2007 MLK Diversity Banquet Speaker
Martin Luther King, III, the second oldest child of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, has been motivating audiences around the world with his insightful message of hope and civility for nearly twenty years. He has taken the torch lit by his father and continued the quest for equality and justice for all people. From Mozambique to Mississippi, Israel to Indiana, his message has touched thousands.
A human rights advocate, community activist and a political leader, Mr. King has been actively involved in significant policy initiatives to maintain the fair and equitable treatment of all citizens, at home and abroad. His missions have taken him to numerous nations throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia. His messages and initiatives are all rooted within the tenets of nonviolent conflict resolution.
In 1986, Mr. King was elected to political office as an at-large representative of over 700,000 residents of Fulton County, Georgia. His tenure on the Board of Commissioners was marked by legislation regulating minority business participation in public contracting, strong ethics legislation, purification of the countyÕs natural water resources, and stringent hazardous waste disposal requirements.
Committed to the personal, educational and skill development of youth, he has initiated several programs throughout the years to support and nurture young people. Among them were the King Summer Intern Program to provide employment opportunities for high school students; Hoops for Health a charity basketball game intended to increase public awareness of newborn babies who suffer the effects of substance abuse; and A Call to Manhood, an annual event designed to unite young African-American males with positive adult role models. In addition to addressing many youth groups and volunteering for several youth- and young adult-oriented projects, one of Mr. King’s writing projects is directed to young people. His current signature youth project is the annual Kindness and Justice Challenge sponsored by Do Something.
On November 1, 1997, Mr. King was unanimously elected the fourth president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization that his father co-founded in 1957. An active member of the Board of Directors, Mr. King has devoted much of his adulthood to the continuance of his father’s mission through the many programs of the SCLC. His tenure began on January 15, 1998, the anniversary date of his father’s birth and continued through December 1, 2003.
While leading the SCLC, Mr. King aggressively fought injustice on many fronts. SCLC was the first national organization to pull its annual convention from the State of South Carolina to protest the flying of the Confederate flag atop its state capitol. He recently led the successful charge to bring down the “Stars and Bars” on the flag of his home state of Georgia.
In 1999, SCLC convened police brutality hearings in 11 cities in the U.S. to address police misconduct, brutality and racial profiling based upon race, ethnicity, or socio-economic class. The culmination of the hearings was an anniversary March on Washington in August of 2000, which highlighted the issue for the nation. Other signature programs under Mr. King’s guidance include the Stop the Killing – End the Violence campaign that is anchored by the Gun Buy-Back program. King and the SCLC finalized an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to advise housing authorities in 15 U.S. cities on conducting gun buy-backs. To date the organization has collected over 10,000 guns across the U.S. in this unique approach.
On January 19, 2004 Mr. King assumed the position as CEO & President of the King Center after a unanimous vote by the Board. Today, he serves as president and chief executive officer of Realizing the Dream, Inc. a national nonprofit organization with an international vision that he co-founded to carry on the important work embodied in the legacies of his parents.
Mr. King received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in Political Science. Martin Luther King, III, was nurtured among individuals deeply committed to the struggle for human rights and a nonviolent society. He has assimilated and utilized those values in his personal and public life.