Martin Luther King III applauds youth anti-violence movement and urges reform

Whenever something critical takes place that affects Black Americans, people always seem to ask, “What would Martin Luther King think about this?”
 
It’s usually asked with disdain and happens when someone or some group does something cringe-worthy.
 
But today, 50 years from the day King was assassinated in Memphis, Martin Luther King III says his father would be proud of the activism erupting today among young people to protest law enforcement killings of unarmed Black men, sexual harassment and abuse, gun violence and more.
 
“I’m grateful … to all those who have worked so hard to carry forward my father’s unfinished work, which continues today in many different forms, including the Me Too, March for Our Lives and Black Lives Matter movements,” King writes in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News.
 
Under the headline “I miss my father, Martin Luther King Jr., but he would have been proud of the explosion of youth activism today,” the younger King makes reference to last month’s March For Our Lives nationwide protest against gun violence and its heavy teen presence.
 

Young people taking the lead

 
“I’m sure my father would applaud the explosion of youth activism that has emerged in response to the gun violence pandemic,” he continues. “I’m certain my parents would agree it is gratifying to see young people leading social change projects in a multiracial coalition. They would also be encouraged that these young people are registering and educating voters in this extremely important election year.”
 
The younger King, a human rights activist, also uses the Daily News platform to urge stronger gun reforms and applauds the laws that have been passed in the wake of the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead.
 

Gun reform

“We should also be open to additional reforms, including some of the high-tech proposals like requiring microchips in future guns not owned by the military, which can disable the weapon in certain areas,” King suggests. “With this technology, it’s possible that digitized “safe zones” can be established in schools.”
 
Sharing the sentiments of his late father, King also encourages in the piece that America embrace a ” ‘culture of nonviolence’ that nurtures peaceful values and a broad range of policies and projects to reduce violence.” This can be pushed forward, he says, through energetic voter registration drives.
 
The son of the late civil rights leader and minister concludes, “Fifty years after his assassination, I look forward to the future, not with sadness and despair, but with a growing sense of optimism that we can, indeed, create a culture of nonviolence in America and worldwide—for this is how we can realize his dream.”

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