Martin Luther King III & Arndrea Waters King family and share with our daughter, Yolanda, is to celebrate the seemingly small victories. Sometimes, those are the most significant ones. The ones where things that looked impossible or seemed small are the stepping stones paving the way to the beloved community.
We have been highly energized by campaigns like the Deliver For Voting Rights campaign, which works to get federal voting rights protection or legislation. Indeed, our work is building a Drum Major coalition with Black and Brown organizers on the ground. Also, what is genuinely fulfilling right now is our Realize The Dream initiative, where we are working to have the nation complete, and possibly the world, 100 million hours of service by the 100th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Our daughter Yolanda said, it’s “100 for 100.”
We fundamentally believe that this is a way for all of us to come together and serve. What’s so beautiful about it is that we’re not telling people how to serve. People get to choose what excites them and what they’re passionate about. When we do something of service to humanity and others, that is a way, particularly for young people, to make them feel in control and part of creating the world they want to live in.
It will be a way of unifying and uplifting the nation and reminding us that what we have in common is so much greater than that which separates us. It’s a way for all of us to come together, stand together, and even work together for the common good. That will fundamentally begin building bridges for the beloved community to become a reality.
Martin Luther King III: It’s important to emphasize fortifying oneself, particularly in moments of history like this. For those living in this era, it may feel like we’ve not seen this before, but our society and humankind have evolved significantly. While we are grateful for the continuous evolution, when you’re in the midst of some level of battle, you don’t appear to be winning your battle. It’s essential to be fortified so that you can come back and fight another day because none of us can fight 24-7. We must take breaks. We must re-immerse ourselves. This is why you must turn internally and make sure you’re internally fortified so that you can externally help to create the climate for that next potential battle that you’re going to have. When I look at the length and breadth of many things that I have been able to do, some with Arndrea and some when I was an elected official many years ago, we create a climate about mentoring young people. Although I’ve been away from that for almost 30 years, the concept of mentoring we began is still ongoing.
There are many things in life that we appreciate. For example, Deliver For Voting Rights was a massive campaign, but it was not completed. But the fact that it was not completed does mean we go stew and decide there’s nothing more we can do. Arndrea says, “At the darkest moments, look to the stars.” When you think about the history of many in our society, history has been replete with many different things that were not always good.
Some during this time feel like they are embracing authoritarianism and that we are going in a backward direction. The universe goes forward. Humankind or human beings may attempt to stop progress, but progress will burst out, and ultimately, progress will win.
Why does it feel like peace, love, and prayer are impossible to achieve?
Arndrea Waters King: Because it’s not instantaneous. However, those of us steeped in prayer understand that the prayers are always answered. They may not be answered in the way we would like, and yet sometimes they are answered instantly in the physical, but sometimes, like anything else, or like a gestation period, it takes some time for the fruitage to come up.
One of the questions that men and women have been pondering since time immemorial is the question of why it appears that peace is so elusive. At Martin’s father’s very last sermon, which was at the National Cathedral, he talked about the fact that mankind still had not been able to make out of a neighborhood, a true brotherhood, and sisterhood. Still, the answer to that is what Coretta Scott King talked about: each generation must earn its freedom.
When you think about peace, justice, and equality, if you think about it just in a linear, it will undoubtedly seem elusive, but when you know and understand that it is just like democracy and ongoing, it’s a continuing process.
Martin Luther King III: It is work. It is an intentional effort, and maybe it would be wonderful if it just happened, but that has not been proven throughout humankind, so if we say we want peace and love, we have to work on and for it. It will come if one’s belief is great enough. It’s almost like believing so profoundly, so fervently, that number one, you immerse it yourself, and you personify it, and it is something that when it is sent out into the universe, most people may wonder, what that is, and say “I want some of that.”
Arndrea Waters King: Also, when we do look over the long tide of history and humanity, I always think back to what Gandhi said, which is that at times when he despaired, when he thought about it, tyranny never won. It might have appeared at times that it was winning, but ultimately, it never won permanently and was never sustained. That’s the thought that carries me. I think of how far we’ve come. When I look at the fact that tyranny has never won throughout history, that’s where I choose to focus, which continues to give me the steady fortitude to continue.
When you awake in the morning, do you have a daily routine that charges you and empowers you to get on with your day?
Martin Luther King III: One of the things we do daily is listen to music. We also listen to my father’s sermons and speeches. Sometimes, we listen to Reverend Michael Beckwith. We listen to a lot of different energies and modalities. Sometimes it’s just bowls. The sound bath, the sound of your verse in the bath of bowls playing. Sometimes, it’s the ocean waves. All of these things that energize me are things that I’ve always done.
Arndrea Waters King: We believe in charging our atmosphere. As Martin discussed earlier, you must put on peace, justice, and equity daily. That begins even before you leave the house. The first thing I say most mornings is, “Thank you.” Yes, we make sure that our atmosphere is charged with high vibrational sounds, whether that is, like Martin said, sound bowls or listening to Michael Beckwith or someone else of that nature that’s uplifting or making sure that music is being played, that again is cleansing but also penetrating and energizing our atmosphere. We also make sure that aromatherapy is going on for our senses.
We do have prayer and meditation routines daily. We write things out and do a complete 360 immersion of being thankful. But we also do an immersion of programming ourselves to bring back our best selves and be those instruments before we even go out into the world. Those are all things we do before we take our first phone call, and our phone calls start very early.
You have partnered with the National Football League (NFL) to champion Realizing The Dream, Legacy. How did this massive project first take flight, and how will this work be implemented?
Arndrea Waters King: We approached the NFL and other sports leagues because, in many ways, in America and around the world, sports are the great unifier. It is one of the few places where people can come together and stand together. We thought it would make sense to approach sports leagues and have them get involved in this message and amplify the message with the owners and players by going into town halls and being those examples to energize and engage young people.
On our website, realizethedream.org, you can learn about our partnership with the Cincinnati Reds, the first Major League Baseball (MLB) team to sign up. Different sports leagues and teams are coming on as we speak. We are very grateful that the NFL came on board to champion this cause and initiative and let us use their platform to amplify this and work with us in partnership to make the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. a reality.
Martin Luther King. III: It takes a team to be able to win. One person may win a game, but it does take a team effort, even in sports where one individual competes, like tennis or swimming. There is always a team backing up that one athlete. It teaches people to work together for a higher cause, for a victory. In one sense, that’s part of why, as we know, being a potential unifier, we’ve engaged sporting teams to help us amplify what we’re trying to do. It is about bringing the nation together.
Three years ago, when we envisioned this concept, we felt that the nation was moving toward a direction of being divided. We had to decide: are we a part of creating division, or do we want to be a part of creating unification? Of course, unification is what we want to do. This concept teaches people to turn to each other, not to turn on and against each other. That’s the climate we need to create.
Did you both grow up playing sports?
Arndrea Waters King: I did not play sports but grew up in Florida, where football is king. Friday Night Lights is a huge deal. I do love watching football. In high school, I was in the marching band as a color guard and participated that way. And I love watching the Olympics. You see excellence on display. Sports, at its best, is so unifying. There are rivalries, but something about it is also so unifying.
Martin Luther King III: I was a tiny bit of an athlete. I played football for one year in third grade and learned it wasn’t for me. Then, I played soccer and basketball until my senior year in high school. I have always been involved in sports. In my twenties, between 20 and 35, I played basketball for fun at least five days a week. It was great fun.
Besides large sports organizations, how can small nonprofit, like small local theaters, get involved?
Arndrea Waters King: We would love and welcome something like that kind of collaboration as a suggestion for one of the paths of service. There’s more than one way that it works, but they all center around the website Realize The Dream. Suppose you’re looking for a service project to be involved in. We have collaborated with Points Of Light, which will connect individuals and young people’s families to service opportunities in their area. We have a lot of corporations coming on board and getting involved.
There is a button on the website if you want somebody to reach out to you or if you have any ideas on service. Say you run a small nonprofit, or you would like to donate hours or get people involved, then you would go to our website, Points of Light, and complete a form. Someone will reach back. It’s that’s simple. We intentionally use service. It is undoubtedly rooted in the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. talked about how everybody can be great because everybody can serve. We also know that service is a form of love and action because it’s the act of helping or doing work for someone.
An example of volunteering could be something like this. In the apartment complex that you live in right down the hall, you notice that your neighbor is in a tougher bind than you, so if you’re a teenager, you can babysit her children for an hour or two. That’s service. We want people to understand we’re intentionally using service because it’s in serving and being of service to our fellow human beings, not just those we think are less than, but everybody. When we’re doing this, that is how we’re paving the path to the beloved community.
How do you balance life with advocacy work? And what do you enjoy doing when you are not focused on work?
Martin Luther King III: For me, it’s watching movies with our daughter. That’s our time to bond. It’s about chilling at home, which we don’t often do. But it’s something we take advantage of when we have the opportunity. When you’re in the public eye, you’re almost always on stage, and it’s a daily process, but it is who you are. Sometimes, you need independent, quiet time alone to re-energize and fortify.
Arndrea Waters King: It’s all the practices that we talked about earlier, and what’s essential are those daily practices. It is quiet time at home with Martin, our daughter Yolanda, my sisters, and very close friends. Having quiet time is
essential for me, and it’s how I recharge. Most importantly, I enjoy reading a good book. I’m an avid reader and do that as much as possible.
Tell us about your new book, My Legacy: Realizing a New Dream of Connection, Love, and Fulfillment.
Arndrea Waters King: The new book is part of the Realize The Dream initiative. It’s a way for us to talk about legacy and share the legacy of service in a new way. One of the things we found in writing the book is that we are in permacrisis. We are set to go from crisis to crisis to crisis. We learned that young people, more and more, as opposed to being more connected – you would think that with technology we would be – we found that people are less connected, which again is one of the reasons for the Realize The Dream initiative.
We want to challenge people to expand their version of what legacy is. For far too long, legacy has been seen as something only for the wealthy. But how can we look at legacy as something we can do daily? We can touch people no matter what our profession is. We must ask, “What are we doing for other people?” That is truly our legacy.
Legacy is not something that happens at the end of our lives. It’s something that we’re doing every day. How can we be connected rather than turning on each other? How can we be deliberate and go from crisis to crisis to building community? This is something that we’re seeking with the Realize the Dream initiative.
This book is a labor of love in the best sense. It’s a love note to Martin’s parents and to my mother, who passed away, and everything that they have sown into us. More importantly, it’s a love note to the world. As a companion to the Realizing The Dream initiative and the book, we also have a podcast, My Legacy, with heartfelt and incredible conversations that will premiere at the end of January 2025.
Martin Luther King III: This book is about living your legacy and, hopefully, re-frames the discussion and gets people to think about what they want to be a part of creating in the world. It doesn’t have to be the world, but it can be in the community, neighborhood, or street because that’s about your legacy.
Arndrea Waters King: A workbook will also be coming out soon with exercises on how to live our best lives. Living that best life is not just looking at our families, but how can we find a way to remember that what we have in common is so much greater than what divides us. How can we find a way to begin to create out of this juggling of humanity and discord and find a way to create a true brotherhood and sisterhood?
You have some incredible notable contributors to this book.
Arndrea Waters King: Yes, we do, and we are honored to have them. The interesting thing about it is the conversations with some of these high-profile names you may have heard of who share their stories. It’s interesting to see people we think we know, but then to see them through another’s eyes and hear their stories. It’s a unique perspective on legacy and many beautiful connections. Everybody can see themselves within these stories and leave feeling fulfilled, challenged, and connected.
Are the book and podcast connected or separate?
Arndrea Waters King: They all are connected because they are all part of the Realize The Dream initiative. It’s a way to get people to think about their legacy, Dr. King’s legacy, and how we’re all a part of that. We must ask ourselves, how are we living our lives? On purpose and with intentionality?
Your family has been affecting change for so many years. What message would you like to impart to those who feel they cannot make a difference or affect change?
Martin Luther King III: We lead by example. Far more people want to engage in a positive rather than a negative way. We must keep showing up daily, whether for one person or one million. The fact is that most of the movement struggles, particularly those that my father and mother led, were just a few good human beings showing up. It wasn’t the masses. Yes, the March on Washington was a massive demonstration. But there were others, and most were just a few good human beings who showed up and showed out in a real sense every day.
Our task is to continue encouraging and creating the climate so the people will want to show up. So much goodness is happening in the world all the time. However, the mainstream media and other outlets have chosen to highlight those things that may or may not be as important. We must change the climate, and people have to demand better, just like you have to demand excellence. It doesn’t happen on its own. It is hard work, and we’re dedicated to doing our part. We are asking those committed to join us because we will create a better nation and world.
Women have historically played a pivotal role in civil rights movements but are often underrecognized. How do you see your role in continuing this legacy and amplifying women’s voices?
Arndrea Waters King: One of the things that I always talk about is that women have been unwavering warriors. If you look at the Old Testament, Moses would not have been able to tell Pharaoh to let my people go if it hadn’t been for his sister in the beginning, saving his life. Even if you look at the New Testament, I remind people after Jesus was crucified, it was a woman to whom his body was released. It was the women who prepared him for burial. It was a woman to whom he first appeared at the wells.
Women throughout history have always been unwavering warriors. When you look at the civil rights movement, when you look at the fact that Martin’s mother, after her husband was assassinated, and even before someone had been arrested for his death, led the March with her three oldest children in his place a day before his funeral. Then she went on after that and had this all-consuming vision of a national holiday, not to honor Martin Luther King Jr., but to lift the legacy, to think about service, and how we could be a part of his legacy. That was something that took her from 1968 to 1983 to accomplish.
It doesn’t have to be women we know. Every day around this country, women continue to be the heartbeat of our nation and world. Now more than ever, the voice of the sacred feminine, you can hear her roar and will no longer be silenced. It’s a very exciting time. This time is also full of challenges, but we are the ones who are here and well-equipped to continue that banner of the sacred and divine feminine in all of her various forms.
What advice do you give to your daughter as she continues to grow as a human rights activist?
Arndrea Waters King: I say the same thing to my daughter that I’ve told her since she was an infant, and that is that being the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King is a wonderful thing, but that’s not what makes her special. It is unique. But there’s something about every one of us that’s unique, whether it’s an eye color or a particular talent. There is not one person walking this earth who does not have something unique. But what makes her special is also the same thing that makes every one of us special, which is who we are as a child of God. I want her to understand her legacy and the freedom to be herself and follow her own path and legacy.
She said it best once when she was being interviewed. She was in the third or fourth grade. One of the journalists asked her, “Do you plan on following in your grandfather’s footsteps?” She said, “Well, maybe some of the footsteps, yes, because I think they’re very important, but I want to make my own footsteps.” She still has that same spirit and mentality. That pretty much sums up who she is.
Where do you envision Dr. King’s dream evolving, in 50 years?
Martin Luther King III: Dr. King talked about eradicating the triple evils. Throughout my mother’s life, she spoke of it as well. The evils are the evil of poverty, the evil of racism and bigotry, and the evil of violence.
If, as a society, we focus for the next 25 years, we could almost wipe out poverty. If not wipe out, then reduce it. If we don’t find a way to reduce violence, then we need to learn non-violence, or we may face nonexistence. Look at all the global crises that exist and the potential for war. These are monumental tasks, but we have the ability. We just have not identified the will. Ability and will create and yield results. We have to create that climate so that people demand this. When people demand, the whole temperature and climate change. It’s like manifesting. We have to manifest it.
Are there any parting words you’d like to share with our readers?
Martin Luther King III: Every day that we’re blessed to wake up, the first thing I hope we all consider is being grateful that we were awakened and slept safely through the night. It’s about starting with something positive, even if you don’t feel good. You woke up, and that is a beautiful thing. Therefore, you have an opportunity to change. The old simple saying is, “When you know better, hopefully you do better,” but you must start with an intention. You must be intentional about what you want to deposit into the world. Everybody doesn’t have to do what we’ve chosen, but they should do something.
There’s a quote that I often use that is inscribed on a statue of the educator Horace Mann, and that is, “Be ashamed to die until you’ve won a victory for humanity.” That sounds grandiose, and it is, but we can win a victory in our school. We can win a victory in our place of worship. We can win a victory, some in our city, some in our State, some in our nation, and some in our world. All those words mean, be ashamed to die until you’ve done a little something to make the world in which we all must live a little better than it was when you arrived.
By Dina Morrone
Photos by Denis Reggie & Ben Rollins Photography
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