A civil rights activist and global humanitarian, Martin Luther King III is one of the world’s most ardent advocates for the poor, the oppressed, and the disillusioned. He has seized the torch lit by his parents, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and is continuing their quest for equality and justice for all.
Recently, his quest led him to rejecting former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s assertion that Mr. King’s father “would be proud” of President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Newsweek, Mr. King said that Bannon, along with many others, lacks understanding of what his father stood for. Below is a segment from the article, read the full piece here.
“People sometimes say things and really don’t necessarily have a full understanding,” said King, a human rights activist. “I’m certainly sure Steve Bannon means well, but what he’s saying is not accurate. I think my father would, as he always did, challenge President Trump tremendously. He challenged all presidents.”
King said President Trump is “tone-deaf when it comes to communities of color. What I mean by that is we have to go back to Charlottesville, where he talked about the neo-Nazi and hate groups who were demonstrating.
“It seems to me that when you characterize that group of people as ‘good’ people, that is certainly not an understanding of who Martin Luther King Jr. was and what he represented. That’s just one of many things.”
King continued, “The question I have is, is the president a uniter, or does he do things that create division? Thus far, a lot of what he has said created division. Around issues of immigration, around issues even of things like housing.”
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“There’s nothing wrong with conservatism,” King told Newsweek. “I think sometimes conservatism is good. But the problem is we are beyond extremely conservative, as opposed to figuring out how we move forward as a nation. How we move forward in a unified way and not a divided way. So I certainly could not agree with Steve Bannon’s characterization.
“And I think my father on many fronts would challenge this administration. The administration has got to do better. We’ve got to become a united nation. United we stand, divided we fall.