When news broke that Donald Trump had been the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally last summer, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son was among the voices that decried the violence.
“Political violence has no place in our society and country,” Martin Luther King III wrote in a post on X. “It undermines the foundations of our democracy.”
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The second child of the country’s most prominent civil rights icon knows all too well the cost of political violence. When he was 10, his father was murdered on a Tennessee balcony and became part of a group of leaders, activists and Democratic politicians, assassinated in the 1960s.
“If President Kennedy and Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, Dad and Robert Kennedy had lived, we would be on a totally different trajectory,” King said. “These were people who were all cut down at a very critical time, not just in our nation, but in terms of where they were moving toward.”
Last July, Trump sustained an injury when the would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear. He went on to win the election and resume the presidency.
He shared his 2025 Inauguration Day with Martin Luther King Jr., whose life and legacy are celebrated each January with a federal holiday.
Yet King has said there is a great gulf between his father and the president.
He lamented the country’s current trajectory in an interview with USA TODAY.
“By and large, in our nation, there is a goodness, a righteousness, a desire to care about our fellow human being,” King said. “We’re on a course that appears to be temporarily out of kilter. We must, at some point, make a course correction.”
‘What can each of us do?’
Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke of creating “the beloved community,” a society in which “men can live together without fear,” as he wrote in a 1966 essay.
Today, his 67-year-old son says building that community is a crucial and ongoing effort.
He has a dedicated partner in his wife, Arndrea Waters King, president of the Drum Major Institute, a nonprofit founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961.
The pair launched the Realize the Dream initiative last year, a national movement with a goal of inspiring 100 million hours of service by January 2029. King and Waters King, together with brothers Marc and Craig Kielburger, released a book titled “What is My Legacy?” and an accompanying podcast called “My Legacy.”
The Kings sat for a video interview with USA TODAY on May 19, a follow-up to conversations with the publication in 2024 in the lead up to a contentious presidential election.
In August, Waters King told USA TODAY she felt the country was “frighteningly divided.” Four months into Trump’s second term, she said that is still the case.
Opinion: Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered 57 years ago. America still needs his wisdom.
“When you think about most immigrants that are frightened, in some cases for children to go to school. Schools, churches, hospitals – those should all be safe places and times,” Waters King said. “Whenever you start othering people, taking out their humanity, then we’re going down a slippery slope.”
Amid strife, King said he looks to the example set by his father, who faced threats to his life throughout the years of his political activism.
In 1958, during a book signing in New York City, Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed by Izola Curry, a woman later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“After he was stabbed,” King said of his father, “he still came back and advocated for forgiveness, for challenging us to create a better climate.”
“So,” he added, “I guess what I’m saying is, I’m sure many people are concerned about the potential of political violence. But we need to reflect on, well, what do we do so that political violence does not manifest and come to fruition? What can each of us do?”
In the public eye
Days into his new term, President Trump signed an executive order calling for government files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and King Jr. to be released “without delay.”
The King family has objected to the release, saying they want a chance to review files before they become public.
JFK files released: Here’s what they say about the former president’s assassination
Descendants of the civil rights icon have declined to speak in interviews, including this recent sit-down with USA TODAY, on their concerns about the files. They have said it is a deeply personal subject.
When asked how he feels broadly about the lifelong spotlight that came as a result of his father’s prominence, King told USA TODAY, “It’s my life. This is what I know.”
“Certainly, it’s always easier to navigate through life without having recognition,” he continued. “But I’m grateful, really, for the opportunity to foster this amazing legacy that we have. And probably more grateful and thankful that we have a daughter that wants to be engaged, is engaged.”
King and Waters King have one daughter, Yolanda Renee King, 17, named after King’s late sister.
Legacy is the throughline in the Kings’ work, as they look past the next four years and even generations ahead. In considering how they hope to be remembered, both said they are steadily building on a foundation set by King’s mother and father.
“We all have a legacy. We all have a voice,” Waters King said. “It’s literally about what we do, how we build our lives every day.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLK III and his wife pursue unity in Trump’s America
