Martin Luther King III speaks on spending time together with his father and elevating his daughter to attach together with his legacy on the “My Legacy” podcast, a co-production by iHeartPodcasts and Legacy+.
From Legacy+, iHeartPodcasts and The Martin Luther King III Basis is “My Legacy” –– a brand new podcast hosted by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Craig Kielburger, and Marc Kielburger.
Launched in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day (1.20.2025), the podcast explores the defining moments and untold struggles shaping the legacies of extraordinary leaders –– upcoming company embrace Mel Robbins, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, David Oyelowo, Billy Porter, Martin Sheen, and plenty of extra.
Within the inaugural episode, the 4 hosts introduce themselves and supply a sneak peek of what’s to come back.
Listeners will hear never-been-told tales concerning the King legacy, the Kings share their love story and focus on how they’re elevating Dr. King’s solely grandchild.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
- [24:45] – Martin and Arndrea King Share the Story of How They Met
ARNDREA: “We have been really launched on a blind date. There have been two folks that have been out and so they met one another and so they recommended that we meet one another. So we got one another’s telephone numbers. We talked on the telephone just a few occasions and we agreed that we have been going to fulfill. And the day and time that we had set, say it was one o’clock, one o’clock got here and went. Martin wasn’t there. 1:05 got here and went. By 1:10, I used to be furious. However I knew for some cause that he would name as a result of we had such nice conversations. I additionally although, had made the choice that he had completely 1000% no likelihood of us ever assembly, courting or connecting, interval. Then about 1:15, a buddy who had been on a few of the calls known as and mentioned, ‘I’m so sorry. Martin was known as out of city on an emergency, and I used to be purported to name earlier and I’m so sorry and might you reschedule?’ I mentioned, ‘certain.’ So he mentioned, okay, ‘he’ll decide you up subsequent Saturday at X time.’ I mentioned, ‘oh, no, that’s okay. We will meet.’ As a result of by this time, I had made the choice that I used to be going to fulfill him so I can look him in his eyes, inform him off, inform him this isn’t the way you deal with a woman. I felt at this level, this was a mission for all feminine variety, as a result of at this level, he had completely no likelihood with me. However I felt the necessity to be sure that no matter woman comes subsequent, that he would know the way to deal with them.”
MARTIN: “So the second assembly occurred on a Saturday, perhaps per week later…I got here in and we went to a desk and we talked, I don’t know, an hour and a half, and it was nice. She didn’t point out one time at the moment that ‘You understand [your friend] didn’t name me.’ So the dialog was I suppose, intriguing. However she was simply so wonderful. Initially, she was stunning then, she’s much more stunning now.
ARNDREA: “I used to be like, ‘oh, yeah, no, that is going to be 5 minutes and I’m out of right here. I undoubtedly want to high school this man.’ That was the intention… Curiously sufficient, when Martin got here in, there was simply this speedy… Anybody who’s ever been in Martin’s presence or met Martin, they will attest to only this extraordinary love and light-weight that emanates from him, which really, frankly, I wasn’t anticipating, and that’s what I suppose disarmed me. After which I in a short time realized that this actually is likely one of the greatest males that I had ever met. So his coronary heart saved him.”
- [95:33] – Martin and Arndrea Share What They Love Most About Every Different
MARTIN: “There’s not one particular factor that I like most. I like the truth that every single day she wakes up and the principle factor is no matter what we’re going by way of and what’s happening on the planet, and there are occasions once we all don’t wish to do issues, she all the time does the precise factor. Not generally, all the time.”
ARNDREA: “His coronary heart. He actually leads and lives on the planet together with his coronary heart. And I bear in mind as soon as the comic Dick Gregory, when he was introducing Martin, he mentioned, ‘this man walks in love’ and that’s Martin. And it’s that approach on stage, off stage, at residence. That and in addition his humor. He’s extraordinarily humorous.”
- [30:35] – Arndrea Displays on Elevating the Solely Grandchild of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King
MARC: “You additionally in fact have the one grandchild of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, a lot of the King’s legacy, in fact, will probably be repeatedly handed all the way down to her. What’s that like? What’s that dynamic like being a father and a mom, but additionally having to nurture and love and cherish a toddler that has candidly numerous expectations doubtless on her shoulders?”
ARNDREA: “For me, I believe from the time that Yolanda was born virtually till now, one of many issues that I’ve frequently mentioned to her is that being the grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr. And Coretta Scott King is one thing distinctive, but it surely’s not what makes you necessary, however what does make you necessary is who you’re as a toddler of God. And in addition to do not forget that that’s the identical factor that makes each individual that you simply are available in contact with necessary. And I believe it’s a superb mixture, as a result of in some methods there are specific issues about Yolanda and her upbringing and who she is that Martin can perceive in a really distinctive approach being raised, being born into the legacy. I believe that there’s a commonality that they’ve, it’s completely different than marrying into the legacy. And I believe my best present to her is the present of normalcy as a result of I wasn’t raised or born into that. I believe additionally to have that steadiness and that present is one thing that I’m intentional in attempting to instill in her that groundedness and the normalcy of life.”
- [32:20] – Martin Shares Reminiscences of Spending High quality Time with His Father
CRAIG: “We all know your father, in fact, as this unimaginable icon of civil rights, however to you, he was Dad, are you able to share with us a few of the moments when he got here again off being on the highway and what it was prefer to spend time with him?”
MARTIN: “After I was a really younger baby, most likely 7, 8, 9 years previous, virtually each week my father would journey someplace and I might see him strolling up the steps of our residence. It was virtually like he might barely make it up the steps. However he understood, on reflection, that whereas I’ve a small amount of time, I wish to create the very best quality expertise for my youngsters. So we have been so excited as a result of dad was coming residence and as I regarded out and noticed him carrying the load of the world, when he noticed us, that power shifted dramatically to a surge, and it was like ‘Daddy’s residence!’ and he would smile, an enormous smile would come over his face. He devoted all his time in direction of satisfying us at that second.”
- [33:50] – Arndrea Shares How The Kings are Serving to Their Daughter Join together with her Grandfather’s Legacy
MARC: “In fact, you’re the dad and mom to the one grandchild of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King. How do you assist her join with him and his work?”
ARNDREA: “The blessing is that there are various speeches of her grandfather and interviews, and positively there are various tales that she hears instantly from Martin. But it surely’s attention-grabbing, when it actually dawned on me how a lot she actually sought, and in an actual sense missed the human reference to him is that we go very often to the memorial in DC to her grandfather, and I seen when she was little that there’s this one explicit image that she all the time was adamant that we needed to get the place she’s type of sitting [on the King memorial]. There’s this small little ledge on the stone of Hope the place he’s popping out of. And each time she was like, ‘I wish to sit there. I wish to sit there’ and so we all the time took that image there. After which one time she mentioned to me, ‘Mommy, the explanation that I like sitting there may be that that is the closest that I can ever be to sitting in his lap.’ So that’s when it actually additionally dawned on me. I believe once more, that individuals see sure points of the King legacy, like so many different households, however then additionally the trauma. I believe that’s one of many causes she, at a younger age, spoke out on gun violence. She labored with the Parkland college students and spoke on the rally with 800,000 college students with solely two hours discover. However she was all the time very enthusiastic about gun violence, not solely being raised throughout a time the place lockdowns and this stuff are all too widespread, however she was all the time cognizant that her grandfather and her great-grandmother weren’t right here due to weapons and gun violence.”
- [41:49] – Arndrea on Her Relationship with Coretta Scott King and Protecting Her Reminiscence Alive
CRAIG: “Not as many individuals are acquainted with Coretta Scott King and particularly will not be acquainted with who she was, not solely as a pacesetter, and he or she was in her personal proper, however simply as an individual and as [her] quickly to be daughter-in-law, what was that relationship like?”
ARNDREA: “Properly, I nonetheless assume that individuals don’t actually perceive what an unimaginable chief she was in her personal proper. We wouldn’t have the King vacation if it weren’t for her. We actually, I believe, wouldn’t even have the legacy in a really actual sense if it weren’t for her safety and route. She and I shared a love of the opera, so we might attend the opera collectively, which was actually particular for me. However that definitely was great. The final yr of her life, I had the immense alternative to spend so much of one-on-one time together with her and truly I’d spend each Friday evening together with her, simply she and I. And so a few of my fondest recollections are each of us moving into our pajamas and watching the Golden Women. One of many issues now that I look again, as a result of she would inform me so many tales about her rising up in Marion, Alabama and just a few tales about her and her early years of marriage to Martin’s father, however now it virtually was that she was infusing all of those tales in me from her personal lips in order that I might inform our daughter all of those tales about her grandmother rising up in Marion, Alabama. That’s not from an interview, that’s not from a guide.”