King, Martin Luther, III 1957–

views updated

Martin Luther King, III 1957–

Civil rights activist

To grow up in the shadow of anyone is a difficult task, but to grow up as the namesake of one of the most important men in the twentieth century requires a Herculean effort. Such is the fate of Martin Luther King, III, who was all of ten years old when his father, famed civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. A shy child, life in the spotlight made him even more reticent, and it was not until his stint on the Fulton County (Georgia) Board of Commissioners that he began to emerge from his father’s shadow. In 1998 he invited further comparisons with his father by taking over as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the civil rights organization his father founded in 1957. It is a comparison he expects and for which he is prepared. As he explained to Kevin Chappell of Ebony, “The question will always be raised, ‘How is your leadership compared to your father’s?’ There is nothing I can do to prevent people from drawing that line since this is the organization he started…. But I understand that you have to prove yourself to people. I believe that all of the skeptics over a period of time will be supportive.”

Born in 1957 in Montgomery, Alabama to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, III grew up in Atlanta where his grandfather and father preached at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. The second child and eldest son, life was far from typical for Martin III and his siblings, but they did not know it at the time. “As a child I was never told or even thought that he was famous,” King explained to William Greider of Rolling Stone “Daddy was just doing the preacher’s job—even though many times there were cameras around. As a child I really didn’t tune in to what he was speaking about. So he was just a regular father to me—other than the fact that he was gone quite frequently.”

A Child of the Movement

His father was, more often than not, on the front lines of the then burgeoning civil rights movement that was sweeping through the South. With a fiery passion, the elder King preached of racial equality while advocating non-violence even in the face of the most blatant forms of hatred and intolerance. On numerous occasions, Dr. King and others would be arrested in their peaceful

At a Glance…

Born Martin Luther King, III in 1957 in Montgomery, Alabama. Son of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Education: Morehouse College; majored in political science and history.

Career: Elected to Fulton County Board of Commissioners, 1986; defeated in race for county chairman, 1993; founded Americans United for Affirmative Action, 1996; appointed president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 1997; sworn in as president of SCLC, January 15, 1998.

Addresses: Office — Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 334 Auburn Ave., NE, Atlanta, CA 30303.

demonstrations. “One day at school one of the little kids said, ‘Your father’s a jailbird,’” King reminisced to Greider. “And I came home crying. And my mother explained to me why my father was going to jail. She said, ‘Daddy’s going to jail to make this world a better place for all of God’s children.’ Well, I went to school with a new kind of pride and determination. Now I remember watching the news and seeing daddy on TV every night, but I didn’t think that he was doing anything unusual because all my contemporaries were the children of the movement fathers—Andy Young, Hosea Williams, Dr. Ralph Abernathy…. When daddy went to jail, all of them would go. So I thought, That’s what all fathers are supposed to be doing.’”

On April 4, 1968 when Martin III was ten years old, his father was assassinated in Memphis. “I guess it was 6:30, and we heard it on the local news,” he told Greider, “and ran back to our mother’s room, looking for a response—like ‘What’s going on?’ And then she sat down with us and told us daddy had been shot and that we didn’t know what the situation was but he was probably hurt very badly.” While on the way to the airport to fly to Memphis, Coretta Scott King learned her husband was dead. Upon her return to Atlanta, she told her children. “She sat us down and told us, ‘When you see him, he won’t be able to talk to you, to hug and kiss you, to respond to any of your needs. He will be in a state of rest. And when you see him, he will look like he is sleeping, except he won’t be breathing; he’s gone home to live with God.”

For awhile, until the arrest of James Earl Ray who was convicted of the murder, the King family lived under heavy security, but Mrs. King insisted they return to normal and the children went back to school immediately. As the eldest son, Martin III took it upon himself to become the man of the house and, much to the displeasure of his brother and two sisters, became a heavy-handed enforcer. “They hated me,” he confessed to Vern Smith and John Leland of Newsweek “I hated myself now that I think of it.” As Martin III and his siblings grew up they have gotten closer and closer, a result of living in a fishbowl atmosphere. None of them have married and, since leaving college, Martin has lived with his mother in the King family home they bought in 1965.

The Emergence of “Marty”

Although he attended his father’s alma mater, Morehouse College in Atlanta, it was there Martin HI began to call himself “Marty” in an attempt to distance himself from the shadow of his father. “I didn’t want special treatment,” he told Smith and Leland, “and I didn’t want to be put in the position of having to lead until I was ready to.” Nor did he wish to follow his father into the pulpit. Though it was never discussed with his father while he was alive, grandfather Martin Luther King, Sr., made it clear he desperately wanted to see his grandson as a preacher. Instead, Martin III majored in political science and history and, following graduation, worked on voter registration campaigns, lobbied for legislation to make his father’s birthday a national holiday, and eventually ran for political office.

In 1986 King won a seat on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, the Georgia district that includes Atlanta. While on the commission, King often faced criticism by those claiming he was not using the influence of his family name to accomplish more. Additionally, he had his share of controversy while in office, beginning in 1990. While delivering a speech, King told his audience that “any man who has a desire to be with another man has a problem.” This outraged gay rights activists and prompted an apology from King who later called his remarks “uninformed and insensitive.” King was also under scrutiny for hiring his cousin as a top aide and delivering a county contract to a company owned by his college roommate.

In 1993 while running for county commission chairman, it became known that King owed about $200,000 in back taxes and penalties on income he received as speaking fees. Although he settled with the federal government and paid the debt in full, the story cast a pall over his campaign and King lost in a shocking upset. Following his defeat King spent time quietly doing small speaking engagements but returned to the public eye in 1997 when he initiated an organization to support and maintain affirmative action. Formed in the wake of California’s Proposition 209, which would have outlawed affirmative action policies in that state, King labeled the group Americans United for Affirmative Action. King would spend little time as head of the organization as he was being courted to succeed Rev. Ralph Lowery as the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the historic civil rights organization founded by his father in 1957.

Dad’s Old Job

The decision to accept the position came with much trepidation. “I didn’t take on this responsibility very easily, and in fact, it took me about five months to come to the conclusion that this is what I wanted to do,” King told Ebony’s Chappell. King says he was essentially “drafted” into the position by SCLC board members who valued his leadership skills. His predecessor, Rev. Lowery, also expressed confidence in King. “This position provides him with a unique opportunity to assert his leadership and to proclaim his vision of America,” Lowery declared to Chappell. “He will be able to lead this organization in participating in the redefining of America…. He doesn’t have to live up to his father’s image. He can establish his own image and leadership, not by trying to duplicate and replicate his father; but by exhibiting a brand of leadership that emanates from his own personality, his own vision, his own commitment.”

For his part, King is confident he can bring something new to the organization. As only the fourth president of the SCLC—his father was succeeded by Rev. Ralph David Abemathy following the elder King’s assassination, and then Lowery—King was the first one who was not a minister, but in fact, more of a politician. “I bring, I believe, the ability to bring a number of people together,” he told Vern E. Smith of Emerge “I think we’ve got to build coalitions in the future that in the past have not been so strong. The main thing is to involve young people.” Additionally, King has to heavily involve himself in fundraising for the organization, a prospect which almost made him reject the job. King took over the SCLC on January 15, 1998, the day that would have been his father’s 69th birthday.

“I’ve always had a passion,” he asserted to Emerges Smith. “People may not have known it because I don’t always articulate it, but in this particular environment and with this organization, I think people are going to see a different kind of Martin.” Whatever kind of Martin is seen, he is sure to be compared and contrasted with his father, although he hopes to be an extension rather than an imitation. “I see myself as hopefully being able to enhance the dream that Martin Luther King, Jr. had,” he told Rolling Stone’s Greider in 1988. “It obviously is not gonna happen today, this week, next month or even five years from now. It may not even happen in my lifetime. It may be a hundred years. But it is a dream that can happen.”