Martin Luther King III brings hope
to Richmond
By Chauncey Bailey
Martin Luther King
III was in Richmond last week to meet with City Council
officials, community leaders and residents as part
of a national factfinding tour to assess the root
causes of poverty in America.
King
hopes to take his message to Congress to press for
solutions and reforms on a national scale.
“Richmond
has many challenges, but also many opportunities
and there are more opportunities than challenges
but there’s been less of a focus on those opportunities,” said
the 50-year old son of the late Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr., during an interview with The Globe.
King’s
itinerary included a number of civic events, tours
and a town hall meeting at the Richmond Memorial
Auditorium “Richmond is one of communities
we are visiting to assess poverty in America so we
can raise the consciousness of our nation about what
should and can be done to address poverty,” he
said.. “My father was involved with the Poor
Peoples Campaign and he had intended to bring the
poor of all races together to say to the policymakers
we demand a right to decent jobs. He didn’t
live to realize that dream... and now 40 years later
conditions are worse.”
King said he has visited
26 communities so far, including a stop last year
in Oakland. He finds some of the biggest problems
revolve around education with high drop-out rates
and not the best teachers.
“Crime is in just
about all these communities. When we went to (the)
Appalachian Mountains you had poor whites and a drug
problem but not the killings we have seen in other
places,” he said.
He said the national focus
of the Bush Administration on fighting terrorism
has left many other opportunities in the lurch. He
mentioned Richmond’s port as one example of
a potential resource.
“You have a port here
in Richmond that is under-utilized. Other cities
with the same problems would pay to have a port like
this, he said.
King stressed the issue at a town
hall meeting with Richmond residents. “We need
to have people like him come here to shed so light
on some of our struggles, said Damon Simon, one of
those who showed up for the town hall meeting. “We
have to deal with drugs, violence, poverty and people
need hope and economic freedom,” he said.
Dexter
Vizinau, a community leader and author who was also
at the meeting, called on Richmond residents “to
come together for a united Richmond.”
Rev.
Andre Shumake and City Councilmember Nat Bates toured
Richmond with King, taking him to speak with families
of homicide victims during his three-day visit, which
began May 1. He also met with youth leaders about
the need for conflict resolution programs.
“The
Realizing the Dream Listening and Learning Tour” is
intended to create a platform for King to identifying
specific issues relevant to the work of nonviolent
social change and particularly poverty, to put together
a program strategy for a national Realizing the Dream
Initiative.”
King’s effort will address
health, education, employment, housing, economic
development and community capacity. The first initiative
will address barriers that prevent distressed and
underserved communities from connecting to the broader
regional and national economies.
The Realizing the
Dream Poverty in America Initiative is also a national
call to leadership aimed at fueling local efforts
to ignite sustainable private investment in communities
carrying the legacy of the King name.
