MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
On this day honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we turn to his eldest son, Martin Luther King III. He is a civil rights advocate in his own right who continues to build on his father's legacy, and he is with us now. Good morning. Thank you so much for being here on this important day.
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity.
MARTIN: You know, since we're celebrating your father's birthday today, I know he traveled a lot when you were young, but do you remember celebrating his birthday when you were growing up? What did you all do?
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Well, like all families, we would have a cake, and we would sing happy birthday, and, you know, there were gifts. I don't remember that aspect of it, but what I do remember was the very last birthday. He was at the office, and we went by the office, and there was singing. And actually - maybe about an hour - there was birthday activities, and then they went back to work because he was working on a campaign to actually engage in leading the Poor People's Campaign. He did not live to see that come to fruition, but that was what his team and he were working on. And we came by the office, sang happy birthday, and then they went back to work.
MARTIN: You always had to share him.
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Yeah. Yeah.
MARTIN: So you've been a student of his work, and you've always been asked to address contemporary social justice issues. How do you compare the current political climate to the one your father was operating in?
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Well, the resistance is perhaps the same, similar or even more. The tragedy is, many years later - I mean, you're talking about 58 years since Dad was killed, and today we have similar issues that he and his team essentially had eradicated. When you look at the fact that poverty, racism and violence - the triple evils he defined - were issues he wanted to eradicate, and yet we have more poverty today than we've ever had. Racism is growing. Racism did not not exist. It just - today, for a period of time, it seemed as if it was suppressed, but it is right back - right up in front of your face. And just we're - it's - the climate is terrible. And if we don't change the climate, I don't know what is going to happen.
What I know is we have to continue to resist and hopefully in a nonviolent way. I think that if we - you know, violence begets violence. You'll never resolve conflicts by combating violence with violence in terms of full-term sustainability. So we have to create the climate where people are able to resist but yet not engage in violence. And I think we can be successful over time because of that. It's sad that we even have to be at this point, but history repeats itself.
MARTIN: Well, what is your reaction to the fact that we're seeing - I'm looking at some of these images right now. The current protest movements - and mainly, we're focusing on Minneapolis at the moment - but elsewhere are being countered by the Trump administration with tremendous shows of force. What's your reaction to that? How are you seeing this?
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Oh, that's what we, unfortunately, all are seeing. And No. 1, the military apparatus was never supposed to be used in the - in our own communities. It reminds us of a time in history in other countries. This is not the democratic way to do things. This is the way that people want to just force you to do something and force - go into schools and go into churches and go into communities and just pull people out of houses. That is wrong, and it always will be wrong. And the American people have to say, this is not what we want, which comes back to the Voting Rights Act. That's why voting is so important. Because those who are in power, who we elect, they can have a say-so with the president. They have chosen not to at this particular moment for whatever reason, which is very sad. But that's where we have to - I mean, that's the system we need to use, embrace, prop up and support.
MARTIN: You mentioned, again, that your father was a proponent of nonviolent resistance. So I just want to play a little bit from a speech he gave at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1966. Here it is.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR: And I still believe that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity. This method has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale. And at the same time, it works on his conscience, and he just doesn't know how to handle it.
MARTIN: What do you advise people to do who want to express their dissent now, recognizing that actions that some protesters consider to be nonviolent the administration views as provocative on its face? I mean, they view following ICE agents as provocative. They view sort of standing and guarding certain sensitive places like schools and churches - they consider that provocative. What do you advise people to do?
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Well, I think we have to have people monitoring or actually engaging in that kind - it's not - they may consider it provocative, but that really is not provocative. That is just documenting what has happened because the more people who understand - and when people stand up and say, no, no, this is unacceptable. We're not going to accept this. We're going to vote. We're going to do all the things we can. There's no other strategy that I am aware of that we can use but that particular strategy. There may be things that can be done when, you know, you've got governors and mayors and other elected officials saying, wait a minute. We got to do this differently. The most - many of these cities did not even ask to have the federal agents come into their cities. The governors didn't. Historically, that was the way it worked.
Well, we just have to keep pushing in a constructive way. And ultimately, we will get some results. At the end of the day, the results are going to be at the ballot box in the November election so that those who are in office, who do not have power, will be able to assess power if other people are elected. Now, that's the if - if. So I still have faith in the system. I think the system is not working to the advantage of the masses right now.
MARTIN: Before we let you go - we only have about 30 seconds left - but what are you focusing on right now?
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Today, I dropped a New York Times piece that is talking about protecting and preserving the right to vote. The Supreme Court is about to decide on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and if that's gone, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm very, very concerned and hopeful that that will not be the case.
MARTIN: That is Martin Luther King III. He's a civil rights activist and the eldest son of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. King, thank you so much.
MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEAN ON ME")
BILL WITHERS: (Singing) Lean on me when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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