Martin Luther King III encourages UB students to be new faces of leadership

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The eldest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his return to Western New York as a guest speaker Tuesday night at the University of Buffalo.

There were a variety of topics from the past two years that he spoke on, but he tells FOX Buffalo one of his goals from his speech is to motivate young adults to be the next generation of impactful leaders.

Since the pandemic began, the U.S. has seen a rise in racial disparities, leaving many communities seeking solutions for change.

Civil Rights advocate, Martin Luther King III, says changes in policies like banning Critical Race Theory is minimizing parts of history that are important to help move forward.

“If you’re going to take history and slant it and say ‘this didn’t happen’ because it might hurt somebody’s feelings, that’s a terrible tragedy. Because if a people that do not remember their history, are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. So you cannot take history and put it under a rug. But that’s what some states have decided to do,” he said.

During Tuesday night’s speech at UB, King mentioned other recent concerns across the globe including mass shootings, poverty, and the war in Ukraine calling on the students to make a difference and get out and vote.

“Courageous, moral leadership is urgently needed to end the atrocities and killings of innocent people,” he said.

“My hope is that the students and faculty at the University of Buffalo will help lead this appeal. Students and young people were pivotal to the successes of the modern American civil rights movement. They helped lead many of the protests against racism.”

Buffalo has had its own share of segregation and recent incidents of violence.

King says it’s up to community members to come up with a strategic plan to improve the city and shared some of his ideas.

“First it starts with dialogue. Number two, I think that diversity sensitivity human-relations training has to be something that the community says they want. You can’t just say ‘we’re going to do this.’ I think that people have to be stakeholders and buy into a concept,”

And King says there needs to be a positive vision for the future.

“As my father Martin Luther King Jr. said in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance remarks: ‘I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals for their bodies, education and culture for their minds and dignity and quality and freedom for their spirits. I still believe that one day mankind will bow below the altars of god and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed and non-violent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the ruling of the land,'” he said.

And King also commented on the incident with Col. Allen West's speech and says everyone should have a fair chance to have their voices heard.