-Dr. King, thank you so much for doing this.
I appreciate it.
-Thank you.
-Coming from a family with -- I mean, such famous parents,
your dad, Martin Luther King Jr.,
your mom, Coretta Scott King,
it's kind of -- it's very big shoes to fill as far as
an activist. -No kidding, wow, yeah.
-[ Laughs ] -Very big, humongous.
I can't even walk in them. -Yeah.
-It's been the lifeblood of my family.
-Yeah.
-And, you know, I have kind of given my life to that.
I can't even imagine not being connected to
what's happening at this moment.
I don't know how anybody can't imagine
not being connected in some way in this moment.
-What do you think your parents would think of this moment?
-You know, I have to first say, my mom would be exhilarated
because she was always committed and dedicated
to the next generation.
That's one of the reasons she founded the King Center,
where I serve as the C.E.O.,
which is the official living memorial to the life, work
and legacy of my father.
And, you know, she would be so excited and really encouraging
them to continue nonviolent, peaceful protests
because it continues -- it helps
to keep things focused on the true narrative.
Unfortunately, there have been those left and right extremes,
who have infiltrated and tried to change the narrative.
But thank God, these nonviolent peaceful protests,
these young people are saying "No, this is what it's about."
Keeping it on justice.
-I follow you on social media,
and you're doing a great job with all that.
One thing I found interesting is you were saying,
you love that everyone is quoting your father.
But it's also interesting because he was hated,
obviously, in 1968.
Now he's the most popular guy.
At one point, I think you said
he was one of the most hated men in the country?
-Yeah. You know, I say all the time.
I've been saying this probably two years when I go around
speaking in this country and around the world.
I say in '68 my father was one of the most hated men in America
and now he's one of the most loved men in the world,
so much so that people do take liberties
to take different quotes to fit their situation.
And nothing is more frustrating for me than that.
I say to people, if you're going to use his words,
try to find the context of those words that he used them in.
For instance, when he talked about riots
being the language of the unheard,
he was not justifying and saying that he endorsed riots.
He was explaining where the riots are coming from.
The other one that gets taken out of context all the time is,
you know, "I have a dream that my four children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but the content of their character."
And people are always saying
Dr. King was for a color-blind America.
And nothing could be further from the truth.
I mean, he was basically explaining that no,
there is a beauty in who I am as a black person,
but I should not be judged by those standards.
And so it's not that you don't see my race.
You see my race.
You acknowledge my race
and you accept everything I bring along with that.
The beauty of the movement now, finally,
Black Lives is the collection of who we are as America.
Fighting and standing side by side with our black brothers
and sisters to affirm that black lives matter,
and my hope is that we'll move from protests
to really solving problems, to really working on tearing down
systemic racism and deconstructing some things
in our society and reconstructing
on a foundation of love, justice, and nonviolence.
-I think what you came up with is a really important thing.
It's an online protest.
And explain why you did this
because I think it's brilliant
for anyone who's afraid to leave the house
because of the pandemic.
-Yeah, the people who were afraid to leave the house
because of the pandemic, you know,
those that have the co-morbidity situations,
people who may be in communities that are far away
from the epicenter where this is happening in different states
across the nation,
we wanted to invite them into what's going on in our country,
this protest, so we established an online protest at 7:00 p.m.
Eastern Standard time every night.
You can find it at the King Center Facebook page
or King Center YouTube.
-Yep, kingcenter.org/onlineprotest.
We'll put it on the screen. -Exactly.
And we wanted everybody to come on and be able to express
the things that they're thinking,
but more importantly,
without all the noise of what's going on
in social media and in traditional media.
We wanted to be able to encourage people to move
simultaneously as the protesters are moving.
We want to move in terms of solutions and actions.
So we are encouraging people.
We started with the arrests.
Now we have that that has occurred.
Thank God.
And now we're calling for people to raise their voices
and begin to bombard the Congress and the Senate
on the chokehold ban.
And so I'm just encouraged by what this protest is doing
and the capability of what it can do,
and it may be something we will continue because
at some point,
this might be a long time with people in the streets,
but if they cease to be at any point,
we're gonna continue to raise these issues
and keep people in that protesting mode.
-Keep them engaged. -Exactly.
-Keep the momentum.
I'm definitely -- I'd love to join.
I cannot wait to do that.
-We'd love to have you.
We want to continue to keep people aware and conscious
and working towards the solution
and really, we've got to uproot white supremacy and racism
in our society once and for all.
We're here now. We can't go back.
-No. -No.
So I'm asking all of my white brothers and sisters,
do the anti-racism work.
It's essential.
And it's nothing to be scared of.
It's nothing to be scared of.
-Thank you so much for coming on our show.
#OnlineProtest.
And I'm going to be involved. -Thank you. I appreciate it.
-Whatever night, any way I can do it.
I really appreciate you taking the time.
I know how busy you are and I'm honored to have you on the show.
-Thank you. I appreciate what you're doing.
-Thank you.