Martin Luther King III

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Martin Luther King III (born October 23, 1957, Montgomery, Alabama) is the son of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

King attended Morehouse College, the same school his father attended. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. King served as an elected commissioner of Fulton County, Georgia, from 1987 to 1993.

In 1997, King was unanimously elected to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization founded by his father. At the helm, King's relationship with some board members deteriorated. Chairman Claud Young briefly suspended King in 2001, citing absence from the office and erratic communication. King left the SCLC in January 2004 to take over the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change from his brother, Dexter Scott King.

Martin Luther King III was only eleven years old when his father, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He of course has been interviewed about his traumatic childhood many times and each time he thinks of it as being asked to become “Little Marty” again. He then goes back and thinks about the good times he had with his father and how much he longed for his father to be there after he was gone. King also thinks about when his mother assigned him the most difficult task any eleven year old boy could imagine; becoming the man of the house. King suffered through this tough time along with his two sisters and younger brother. King’s older sister Yolanda is an actress, his younger sister Bernice has become a minister and his younger brother Dexter who oversees the usage of his father’s image is trying to break into the entertainment industry. Out of all his siblings Martin was the one who stepped into the public eye and took on their father’s role. Even though King doesn’t turn down talking about his childhood and will certainly never forget it, he would much rather like to focus on the future. Up until November 2003 Martin III was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which his father led in the 50s and 60s. Unlike his father who found his passion and reached out and grabbed it, Martin is still trying to come across his. It seems as though that everyone wants him to actually “be” his father. They can’t seem to get over the fact that Martin III is different from his father and cannot completely take over his role. Because of his inability to “be” his father people have attempted to cut him down. For instance, some would say that he was a mama’s boy because he lived with his mother until he was almost 50 years old. He would counteract these comments by saying that he lived with her to take care of and protect her. Martin says that he does not take these attacks personally and they do not in any way interrupt his goal of finding his passion in life (Blake).

Blake, John. Children of the Movement. Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2004.