'Frighteningly divided': Martin Luther King III, wife talk state of America, election

These days, Martin Luther King III is especially protective of how people use his father's legacy.

When former President Donald Trump referred to North Carolina’s potential first Black governor as “Martin Luther King (Jr.) on steroids,” the son and namesake of the civil rights icon was quick to jump in to refute the claim.

"Politicians in general often use my father as a smorgasbord for what they want to accomplish,” Martin Luther King III told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview last week. As recently as Thursday, Trump boasted about the size of the crowd at his rally on Jan. 6, 2021, claiming that it was bigger than the one for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream Speech."

King partnered with a liberal-leaning advocacy group in June for a seven-figure ad campaign against North Carolina Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson, who has made waves for a variety of controversial statements against abortion, homosexuality and the Civil Rights Movement. North Carolina stands to have the year's most competitive governor's race, as well as play a role in deciding the next presidency.

The oldest son of MLK's four children, King is a longtime human rights activist in his own right alongside his wife Arndrea Waters King. She serves as president of the Drum Major Institute, a nonprofit progressive group originally formed during the Civil Rights Movement.

This month, 61 years will have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. The Kings talked with USA TODAY about the stakes of this year's pivotal election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. They also weighed in on how they see civil rights in America today, including in light of the recent death of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman shot and killed by an Illinois sheriff's deputy.

"Ultimately," Martin Luther King III said, "the goal is creating a better society and a better human race, because we're not operating anywhere near where we need to be as a human race. And that's dangerous and terrible."

Here is that conversation, edited for length and clarity.

On Harris vs. Trump

Q: Looking at this election, what challenges do you expect Vice President Harris to face while running to be the first woman and first woman of color to be president?

Waters King: Literally at less than 24 hours of the announcement, we saw attacks on – obviously in politics, there is going to be attacks on records. And so that's to be expected. It is not to be expected of the very first thing that's said is, "This is a DEI candidate."

It's unfortunate, because I think that we've heard quite a lot of talk over the last few weeks about unity, but you can't talk about unity and continue to stoke the flames of division. And that's what we're seeing.

Q: Do you think Trump has made in-roads with support among Black men voters?

MLK III: We'd have to say that he has historically gotten more Black votes than previous Republican candidates. But as to whether or not it is actually growing substantially, that just is not quite accurate.

And I also believe that there's going to be a groundswell of support now for the Vice President. And I say that because if you look at what has happened around conversations – African American women, I believe, had the first major call last Monday, where over 50,000 women, Black women, were on the phone. Then Black men had a call. These are all events that are unifying the nation and the community.

It's excitement, energy that we've not seen in the political process. Now saying all that, that's all amazing, but that does not mean it's going to be easy. This is going to be a very hard campaign where the Vice President is still an underdog.

Watching North Carolina, Georgia in 2024

Q: What was your reaction hearing Trump compare Robinson to your father?

MLK III: It's important, I think, from my perspective, that if my father is ever used, that I have to say, “No, ... this is not what my father represented.” And I just want people to know that that's an untruth, because so many people, for whatever reason, listen to the former president.

Q: Georgia is another state being closely watched this year and that you would know a lot about. What do you make of its new role as a swing state?

Waters King: Georgia is solidly a purple state. And that has not happened by accident.

There are incredible activists that are on the ground that have – and I will proudly say the majority of which are Black women – have been at the forefront here in Georgia of turning this state from solidly red to solidly purple. And because of that tremendous amount of groundwork that has been going on for many, many years, I certainly think that Georgia definitely will be in play for this upcoming election. And one of the things that we're seeing here in Georgia is an excitement and an energy that, frankly, we haven't seen in many, many years.

State of America today

Q: What do you think of the country in this moment?

Waters King: We are frighteningly divided. I think it's quite clear that no matter what happens in this upcoming election, you will have half of the country extraordinarily and passionately, disappointed is not even the word, but we really are at odds in a way in which actually I don't think I've ever seen quite to this degree in this lifetime.

We truly are in a battle for the soul of our nation. And I do think that now more than ever, it's imperative for us to find that way to the beloved community that Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, that they talked and worked so hard for.

MLK III: Where we are is a function of what we've been doing as a society. My father used to say darkness cannot put out darkness, only light can do that. Violence will never stomp out violence, only non-violence and love can do that. And so, in that vein, we have to intentionally be promoting something different than the divisiveness, because that's not sustainable.

Q: Thinking about the recent killing of Sonya Massey and so many other Black Americans, what still needs to be done to reach that beloved community?

MLK III: I can't imagine what was going through that officer's mind in terms of what he just arbitrarily did. We see things like this happening in communities of color, it feels like more frequently and at higher levels than anyone else. And we've got to go back to the drawing board to re-orient a different mode of thought.

Historically, there have been few consequences. Fortunately, there have been good lawyers and good people who've come forward and say, “Hey, this is not right, we're not going to accept that.” And then at some point, there's a prosecution. This incident was so off base that the policeman was immediately arrested and put in jail. That rarely happens, or historically has rarely happened. There's a different climate now, and people are holding law enforcement and everyone accountable.

Waters King: In the aftermath of George Floyd, there were a lot of conversations about policing in this country. One of the things that we still have not been able to get through, because of the fact that Congress is so divided, is the George Floyd policing act. This is something that the president has pushed.

This is an extraordinarily painful and terrible situation, but it lays bare so many things, the conversations that we need to have in this country, but also things that need to be done in this country.

MLK III: My dad's book, his last book, written in 1967 before he was killed in ’68, “Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?” And that is exactly where we are. We as a society must determine − we see and are living chaos. But humankind must get to the point ... where we want to build community. And we've got to define how do we want to build community so that every child has an opportunity, has the best health care, has the best education, has the best opportunity of finding a reasonable job, has a decent home, and has justice.

And I think we must be focused on that, as to what and how we create what mom and dad would have called the beloved community, that community that serves us all, at the highest level.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Frighteningly divided': Martin Luther King III, wife talk state of America, election