Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Martin Luther King III hugs Taji Hutchins and her brother, Clayton, after he gave a speech at St. Andrew's.
Martin Luther King III speaks at St. Andrew's
By Leigh Ann Maze
Thanks to 5-year-old Taji Hutchins and her brother, Clayton, Martin Luther King III came to St. Andrew's Church and addressed their St. Andrew's School classmates on March 2. Taji and Clayton's father, Henry Hutchins, is president of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Black MBA Association.
At the suggestion of his children, Hutchins invited King, the eldest son of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, to speak at his organization's annual scholarship presentation. While in the Bay Area, King spoke at five schools including, on Taji and Clayton's insistence, St. Andrew's.
The Hutchinses were not the only St. Andrew's connection to the King family. The Rev. Ernest Cockrell, rector of St. Andrew's Church, marched behind Dr. King in a rally that King organized in Washington, D.C., to protest the Vietnam war.
"Greeting you as a person who grew up in the segregated South, I could tell you stories that you could probably tell me, too," Cockrell said in his introduction to King's talk. "Now you have taken your place in the continuing quest for equality and justice, building upon your father's vision, but speaking with your own voice."
King spoke casually to the students and parents who filled the church, repeatedly stressing to the children the importance of reading as a key to success. "As a young person my father learned and mastered reading," he said.
King, who was only 10 years old when his father was killed at the age of 39, has dedicated his life to carrying on his father's message of social equality, not only throughout the United States, where many inequalities still exist, but to the international community as well. "I ended up, in a real sense, following in the footsteps of my father and trying to continue his work. I believe that his work was not finished," King said.
King has served on the board of directors for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. He was instrumental in the creation of the Africa Initiative, a program developed to end starvation in Africa. He has also been active in the moral and political dilemmas in South Africa, Haiti and Nigeria.
King has initiated several programs for young people in the U.S., including a summer internship program for high school students, a charity basketball game to benefit infants who are victims of substance abuse, and a program that connects young African-American men with positive role models. He is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that his father co-founded in 1957. King, 42, received his bachelor's degree in political science from Morehouse College in Atlanta.
After speaking to the children at St. Andrew's, King opened up the floor to questions. Most of the children asked about his father: if he remembered him, how he felt when his father was killed, and if he had ever marched with him. King recounted traveling across the country several times with his father, and marching alongside him. He said his fondest memories of his father, though, were the times they played together. He said his father used to put him on top of the refrigerator and let him jump down into his arms.
King told the children that it was very painful when his father was killed, but that a strong foundation enabled his mother and three siblings to continue with their father's vision after his death.
"My father talked about a dream of one day living in a nation where his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," King said. "That was a vision that he shared back in 1963. We still have a ways to go before we fully accomplish his dream."
King briefly mentioned the Columbine tragedy and the recent shooting of a 6-year-old child by a classmate in Michigan. "These are real problems that we need to address," King said. "We are a much better nation than the behavior we see today." Just as he is building on his father's dream, King stressed the importance of recognizing the opportunities those who have come before us have created, and continuing that cycle by working to create opportunities for the next generation.
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