Martin Luther King III to Speak February 28th

February 18, 2002

February 18, 2002, Greencastle, Ind. - Martin Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the eldest son of Martin Luther King, Jr., will visit the campus of DePauw University Thursday, February 28, and deliver a speech at 7:30 p.m. in Meharry Hall of historic East College. His address, "Has America Forgotten Her Dream?: Civil Rights Organizations and the Future," wraps up the University's celebration of Black History Month and is free and open to the public.

"As individuals and collectively we have the qualities to make a significant difference in our society," Mr. King has said. "We have the experience. We should have the willingness. We have the mission and I believe that we have God on our side. All that we need is the commitment to work together for the beloved community, for the sake of our future, and for the sake of our children. There is no problem we cannot solve when we work together."

Martin Luther King III's vision of a positive future, built upon the principles taught by his father (who spoke at Gobin United Methodist Church on the DePauw campus September 5, 1960; photo at right courtesy DePauw archives), has touched thousands from Mozambique to Mississippi. A human rights advocate, community activist, and political leader, Mr. King has been actively involved in policy initiatives to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of citizens at home and abroad. In the late 1970's, he was asked to represent President Jimmy Carter in two official delegations to promote peace in foreign countries. In 1984, as a member of the board of directors of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Mr. King ventured to five poverty and drought-stricken African nations on a fact-finding tour. That led to the creation of the Africa Initiative, a program developed to end starvation on that continent.

In 1986, Mr. King was elected to political office as a member of the board of commissioners of Fulton County, Georgia, where he represented more than 700,000 residents. On November 1, 1997, Mr. King was unamnimously elected the fourth president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the organization which his father co-founded in 1957. He began serving as president on January 15, 1998, the date of his father's birth.

Martin Luther King III was born in Montgomery, Alabama, the second oldest of the four children of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in political science. King's DePauw appearance is sponsored by a number of campus organizations.

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