The son of Martin Luther King Jr. urged the College community to keep his father's goals of racial equality for all a priority in their lives.
“We've made substantial progress in many aspects,'' Martin Luther King III told the crowd of about 500 people inside Memorial Chapel Wednesday night. “But we have a lot of work to do to eradicate racial injustice.''
In his address, King said the federal holiday marking his father's birthday is an opportunity each year “to begin anew” in pursuit of his father's dreams.
He chided the country's leadership for the high rates of poverty, particularly in the black community and said the billions wasted on the war in Iraq would be better spent on social programs, including more money to improve schools.
“We must demand more accountability from our elected officials, regardless of what party they belong to,'' he said.
The second oldest child of the civil rights leader and Coretta Scott King, King has been speaking around the country about “My Father's Dream, My Mission.'' Many of his appearances have been on college campuses such as Union College's.
“They are the future leaders of our country,'' he said prior to his speech. “It's important young people have a liberal arts exposure.''
King was welcomed to the stage by the Dutch Piper's a cappella group and Heavenly Voices, the college's gospel choir ensemble. They sang the school's alma mater, Ode to Old Union.
From 1998 to 2003, King served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization his father helped create in 1957. He has also served on the board of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, which his mother founded shortly after her husband was killed in 1968.