Human rights and community activist Martin Luther King III will be visiting Kean to share his vision of unity with the Kean community in the North Avenue Academic Building Auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020 at 4:30 p.m.
King III is the eldest son of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Through his work in human rights, he has continued to further the legacy his parents left behind by fighting for justice and equality for all people.
King III was born on Oct. 23, 1957 in Montgomery, Alabama. King III was only ten years old when his father was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
He attended Morehouse College and received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1979.
From 1997 to 2004, King III was the fourth president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is a social justice foundation that his father co-founded in 1957 with other civil rights leaders, such as Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Bayard Rustin and Joseph Lowery.
King III was also an elected county commission member in Fulton County, Georgia from 1987 to 1993.
In 2008, King founded an organization called Realizing the Dream, which would later merge with The King Center, a 23-acre national historic site located in Atlanta, GA dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. and his work advocating for civil rights.
In the same year, King III spoke on behalf of Senator Barack Obama, who was running for president at the time, at the Democratic National Convention, on the 45th anniversary of his father's "I Have a Dream" speech.
King III has also received awards for his contributions. In 2010, he was given the Ramkrishna Bajaj Memorial Global Award for Outstounding Contribution to the Promotion of Human Rights at the 26th Priyadarshini Academy Global Awards in Mumbai, India.
In 2015, King III was awarded with the Humanitarian Award by the Montreal Black Film Festival.
He married his longtime girlfriend Arndrea Waters in 2008. A few months later, the two had a daughter, Yolanda Renee King. She was named after her aunt, who passed away a year before. Yolanda is the first and only grandchild of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
The audience will hear the experience of a man who devotes his life to equality and human rights. General admission for the lecture is free, but a ticket is required for entry which will be scanned.
Seating is on a first come, first served basis for the first 450 people to arrive, then the overflow of people will have the opportunity to view the live streaming feed of the event on the sixth floor of the North Avenue Academic Building.
Tickets are currently sold out, but anyone who wishes to attend can be placed on the wait list by calling the Box Office at (908) 737-7469. More information about the event can be found here.
