Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights advocate Martin Luther King Jr., said his father would be “quite disappointed” with the current world, but not surprised.
King joined NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” where he was asked about the state of the nation and what his father would think.
“He’d be quite disappointed, quite frankly, that we are where we are,” he said. “Probably wouldn’t be surprised, but he certainly would be disappointed because he always infused energy that was positive, bringing out the best of who we as Americans are.”
King said as Americans are more divided than ever, there’s good that can come during these times.
“Unfortunately, in great tragedy, we see the best of who Americans are,” he said. “But when it’s over, we go back to our corners and live in bubbles and separate. We need to exhibit the behavior that we exhibit in tragedy universally, all the time.”
President-elect Trump is set to be inaugurated on the day of remembrance for King’s father, and he said he hopes Trump will “be in dialogue with everybody.”
“If you really want to bring the nation together so that it is the manifestation of what we call ourselves, the United States of America, we’re not reflective of the United States of America right this moment, in my judgment,” he said.
