Renowned civil rights advocate and global humanitarian Martin Luther King III is set to take the stage as the featured speaker in the fourth installment of the Lesher Foundation’s Newsmakers: Lesher Speaker Series at the Lesher Center for Arts in Walnut Creek on April 23.
King’s father, the late Martin Luther King Jr., was a significant leader during the Civil Rights Movement, using nonviolent resistance to protest against Jim Crow laws and discrimination. The elder King led numerous marches and boycotts, including the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, and the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965.
The elder King is well-known for his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech that was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. The speech is considered one of the greatest in American history and inspired thousands of people to advocate for civil rights and the desegregation of the United States.
“We, as a country, are still trying to live up to it,” said Todd Truesdell, a history teacher at Deer Valley High School in Antioch.
Born on Oct. 23, 1957, in Montgomery, King’s oldest son was only 10 years old when his father was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. King found himself in the spotlight due to the legacy of his father.
King, who attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1979, went on to join the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in Georgia in 1986. He also continued his work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization, where he served as the organization’s fourth president from 1997 to 2004.
Currently, King is the board chairman of the Drum Major Institute, a nonprofit founded in 1961 that helps carry out his father’s work and vision of radical nonviolence.
In addition, King once served as president of The King Center, a global destination, resource center, and community center founded in 1968 by his late mother, Coretta Scott King, to spread his father’s message to the world. King has also initiated several projects following his father’s vision to, in his words, “eradicate what he defined were the triple evils: poverty, racism and violence.”
“It takes extreme measures for extreme events to bring about change,” King said in a 2025 interview with the tech company Blavity.
King and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, a social justice activist, pointed out that people must adapt with time to address an issue.
“It really, at the end of the day is about creating an environment that serves everyone,” King said.
King took those words to heart. One of his notable co-founded initiatives was “Win Both Seats,” an influencer-activist initiative that focuses on helping raise money for Brown- and Black-led community organizers during the Georgia Senate runoffs during the 2020 elections. Since its founding in 2020, the initiative has raised more than $2.5 million for several organizers to combat voter suppression efforts, such as the controversial SAVE Act that, if enacted, could potentially disenfranchise millions of people’s voting rights, including women who have taken their spouse’s last name.
Truesdell, the Deer Valley history teacher, feels the issue of voting rights is very topical.
“I think that voting rights in our country are currently under attack,” Truesdell said.
“What makes us one of the most successful countries in the world, despite all of our failures, is our ability to vote. It’s a crucial part of our democracy.”
Since 2024, King has set his eyes on new milestones. His “Realize the Dream” initiative, a five-year commitment and partnership between the Martin Luther King III Foundation and Legacy+, a foundation that focuses on bringing purpose and impactful movements and legacy projects, calls for schools, teachers, and communities across the United States to perform 100 hours of community service.
Regina Lyon, who teaches a Global Studies English and History class that is part of a Justice and Community pathway at California High School in San Ramon, said she has been inspired by this type of push for change by King and his father. Lyon mentioned the elder King’s speeches “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “Where Do We Go From Here?” as making a great impact on her life.
“These speeches have made me examine my own role in movements for justice and have helped me push forward in my own life as I seek to support movements for liberation,” Lyon said in an email. “I think it’s important for younger generations to understand how we arrived where we are now when it comes to civil rights. It is in MLK’s imperfections that the average person can see that we are all capable of effecting great change.”
On his website, King’s oldest son writes, “There are monumental world challenges that we must focus on as a society. Climate change, poverty, violence, peace, justice, equity. …Where do you and your family want to make a difference?”
As King works to make his father’s vision come true, he ensures it is not exclusive to the United States.
According to ACN Cuban News Agency, the Mexican Foreign Affairs Office said that King has dedicated his life to defending civil rights and equity in the U.S., as well as initiatives for peace and social justice around the world.
King continues this work with his participation in the Lesher Speaker Series. As with all events, selected questions from the audience will be permitted to spur conversation.
The Newsmakers: Lesher Speakers Series will take place in the Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale on the Lesher Center’s website.
Emma Mayta Canales is an 11th grader at Deer Valley High School in Antioch. This story was made possible by support from the Lesher Foundation, its Newsmakers speaker series, and the Bay City News Foundation. Stories are produced independently by the CCYJ news team.
