MLK’s son has a message for Donald Trump – and for America

On January 20, 2025By Littum

The date was 28 August 1963. An estimated a quarter of a million people came to Washington DC on a sunny day to march for jobs and civil rights. The peaceful protest culminated in Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered a touching talk it would forever change America.

In August, when he was running for president for a third term, Donald Trump compared the size of his audience on January 6, 2021 to the crowds that gathered to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic speech. Instead of expressing dismay that a violent riot – fueled by him – had taken place that day, Trump bragged about how many people had attended the “Stop the Steal” rally.

In some ways, it’s a sick irony — the juxtaposition of Trump being inaugurated on Monday, the same day we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. King was a champion of civil and human rights. He fought for economic and social equality for black Americans and for all individuals.

Trump? Well, I’ll get to that later. But note: The House Select Committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 estimated that Trump’s speech drew 53,000 supporters.

Through the lens of a descendant, I wanted to speak with Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, on the convergence of Inauguration Day falling on the same date as America pays tribute to the legacy and work of her late father. I wanted to know how he reconciled this weighty collision.

His answer was simple: It is through service.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” King told me via video from his house in Atlanta. “We knew instinctively that no matter what happens down the road… we’re going to have a choice. And whether it goes one way or the other, we’re still going to have to turn on each other and not turn on each other .And then we do it through the many ways to earn.”

‘You have to make a dramatic change’

Monday marks the 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday. It is federal holiday only designated as a national service day. In rare cases, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day coincide.

Former President Barack Obama was inaugurated for his second term on Sunday, January 20, 2013. A private inauguration ceremony was held on Sunday, and a public ceremony the following day, Monday, January 21, 2013 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“We the people declare today that the plainest of truths—that we are all created equal—is the star that still guides us; as it guided our forefathers through Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall; as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a king proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound the freedom of every soul on Earth,” Obama said.

In 1997, Bill Clinton was the last president to be sworn in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Clinton noted that 34 years ago, King had shared words across the National Mall “that moved the conscience of a nation.”

“Like an ancient prophet, he spoke of his dream that one day America would rise up and treat all its citizens as equal before the law and at heart,” Clinton said. “Martin Luther King’s dream was the American dream. His quest is our quest: the ceaseless striving to live out our true creed. Our history is built on such dreams and work. And by our dreams and work, we will realize the promise of America in the 21st century.”

Just a few kilometers away from where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Trump will give a speech of his own – setting the country’s course for the next four years. Trump’s inauguration has been moved into the US Capitol Rotunda due to forecasts of extreme cold.

This means that only a small group of invited guests will be able to attend the inauguration – a fact that should put an end to any comparisons of audience size. Hopefully.

When I asked King on Monday if he thought Trump would invoke his father’s name, memory or words during his inauguration speech, he replied with a wry laugh: “I have no idea.”

But King has a message for Trump. He was thoughtful and firm as he spoke.

“I don’t want you to call out the words; I want you to call the shots,” King said. “Anyone can spew a lot of words. But what are you going to do to help change the lives of millions of people in this country? You’ve been elected leader of the free world, and you can’t do that by oppressing people. You can’t do that by belittling people … You have to make a dramatic change.

“And I honestly don’t expect that,” King said. “But I expect us to continue to challenge him to be the best he can be of himself, whatever that is.”

‘Double and rededicate’

King has his own agenda for America. He has his own thoughts about where the country should be. He creates his own legacy while walking in the shadow of his father.

“The hope is that people will double down and get themselves back to work,” King told me. “This is really about being engaged to finish the work that he and my mother and so many others started. Yet the bigger challenges are in a real sense because we as a nation are at odds with the division. We always want to exhibit an opportunity for people to meet.”

Much of the divisiveness King speaks of lies at Trump’s feet. There is certainly a clash between ideals and actions – those of Trump and Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump’s policies and promises to dismantle racial equality programs and deport immigrants, for example, run counter to what King stood for. Trump has become a poster child for white nationalists resistant to the changing demographics of this country. And often King’s words about judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin are bastardized by Trump supporters who take King’s opinion out of context.

‘We must continue’

So 60 years later and we’re still dreaming. The work is not done.

King, his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, have decided to redouble their family’s efforts to unite this country and bring it to a place where every American experiences peace, justice, equality, and love—the dream of his father, Martin Luther King Jr.

It comes down to one word: community.

“We have to keep going,” Arndrea Waters King told me. “The truth is we don’t have the luxury of giving up or giving up.”

“Realize the dream” is a national initiative that Kings created in 2024 to promote unity and strengthen communities across America. But they seek more from the movement.

They ask each of us to come to work. The Kings set a five-year goal of creating 100 million hours of community service by 2029 — the year Martin Luther King Jr. would have turned 100 years old.

Volunteer in schools? Yes. Clean up your neighborhood? Yes. Do you work in a food pantry? Yes.

“When we see where our nation and the world are, it really says we have a lot of work to do,” King told me. “Individuals can do something that is great, but we collectively need to work on these issues to make our society better.”

Why is this important to King, a man with a larger-than-life name? Because like his father, he also has dreams. And the hopefulness that comes with the sense of community, of lifting each other up.

“I am often asked, ‘Have we achieved the dream?’ said King. “Well, no.” We didn’t do it last year. But the great thing is that every January in January we have the opportunity to start anew, and eventually there will be a day when at least many elements of the dream that Dad envisioned will come true. Now, that doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress and progress, but it still means that if you took a yardstick, you’d have to say, ‘You know what, we’ve got a long way to go to create this vision that Martin King and Coretta King talked about.’ “

Like King, I’m not sure Trump is capable of dramatic change. He has shown us again and again who he is. Trump’s moral compass seems to be redirecting him down a rocky path of accusations and complaints. Splitting is his calling card.

But we can do better as a country – as a community. We can work to help our neighbors. We can embrace diversity and those who seek a better life. We can learn our history and learn from it. We can love those who are different. We can support women and children and the elderly. We can feed the poor. We can fight for justice and equality for all. We can eradicate hate.

And as Trump puts his hand on the Bible on Monday and pledges to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, let’s make our own personal pledges to fight the ugliness that sometimes consumes this country.

“We’ve seen chaos for a number of years now,” King told me. “At the end of the day, it’s not sustainable if you want to look at it intellectually. But society can be sustainable in many, many different ways.”

So let’s get started.

Suzette Hackney is a national columnist. Reach her at X:@suzyscribe