Martin Luther King III

“If I woke up every day attempting to be my father, I would fail miserably. I think he was anointed. He was chosen by God, and there are few men or women in our world that will be chosen by God to make the kind of impact that he made.”

“There is more racial integration in American life and many more people of color serving as elected officials and corporate leaders than there were during my father's time. But there is also reason for concern about new forms of racial oppression, such as measures to make it harder to vote, racial profiling and crushing public worker unions.”

“I think the best of us comes when we are working together collectively. And it doesn't mean that we can't disagree. We've got to learn, as Dad taught us, to disagree without being disagreeable.”

“Now, that doesn't mean that individuals can't have Confederate flags on their property. They have the right to do that. But again, it represents something that is not unifying.”

“The only way you change is you have to at least be communicating.”

“Climate change pries further apart the haves and have-nots.”

“When you've been raised in a home of love, and for your loved one to be taken away from you through violence, a lot of emotions go through your mind.”

“The seminal right of the modern civil rights movement was the right to vote. My father fought so diligently for it. Certainly Congressman John Lewis and many others, Hosea Williams, fought for it as well.”

“You can win a victory in your neighbourhood. You can win a victory in your school. You can win a victory in your place of worship... Be ashamed of your existence until you've done a little something to make the world in which we all must live a little better than it was when you arrived.”

“On March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights activists marched in Selma, Alabama, demanding an end to racial discrimination. The demonstration was led by now-Rep. John Lewis and Hosea Williams, who worked with my father, Martin Luther King Jr.”

“I would assume my father would support anything that lifted up and created opportunities for 'the least of these.'”

“My father would be very concerned about the environment. He'd be disappointed that we have hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions of people who are living out on the streets in the wealthiest nation on the planet. He'd be greatly disappointed because he would know that we can, and we must, do better.”

“As our nation has become more divided, there is a resonance for a message to bring people together.”

“America has an obligation to secure its borders, but it is wrong to pass laws that treat human beings as something less than human. If my father were alive, he would be in the forefront of the struggle for a fair and humane reform of our immigration laws.”

“Some people need a targeted kind of learning. They need a different approach, like charter schools. There are virtual classrooms that some will do well in. The reality is, if there are no options, if there is just one particular standard, then someone is going to fall through the cracks, as we've seen.”

“Martin Luther King Jr. was an impassioned advocate of economic justice as well as social justice.”

“Because no matter who we are or where we come from, we're all entitled to the basic human rights of clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and healthy land to call home.”

“The appalling racial injustice inherent in the Trayvon Martin tragedy reminds us that there is still much to do.”

“Whether it is a tsunami, or whether it is a hurricane, whether it's an earthquake - when we see these great fatal and natural acts, men and women of every ethnic persuasion come together and they just want to help.”

“As human beings, we are God's highest creation.”