SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Martin Luther King III, the son of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., visited the U.S.-Mexico border in the South Bay Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of his father's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.
King III delivered a speech during an Alliance San Diego-hosted event at the Border Field State Park that called on the country to "create a collective consciousness that holds the values of human dignity, liberty and civility."
King III's remarks:
"This border wall behind me has become a symbol of hate and division. It leads to the separation of children from their parents, endangers border communities and takes the lives of people in search of safety and freedom. For many, it is a symbol that represents the injustices against immigrants and border communities from San Diego, CA to Brownsville, TX, and beyond.
My father was a builder of bridges, not walls. In fact, you could say that his nonviolent leadership was all about tearing down walls -- walls of racial segregation and separation, walls of discrimination and division, walls of fear and ignorance that were created to prevent the unity of people of all backgrounds.
There was no room for building walls in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream. Instead, he was about building bridges -- bridges of trust and understanding, bridges of mutual respect and goodwill, bridges of hope and opportunity. And that's what we who believe in his Dream must be about today. It is about revitalization, not militarization. That is what we must do to create a great future for all of the people of North America and the world.
Towards the final days of his life, my father often turned to a theme honed in the crucible of nonviolent struggle. That theme was a call to conscience. It was a call that would create a collective consciousness that holds the values of human dignity, liberty and civility. This would be a revolution of values. That revolution would restructure the very architecture of our society. That call to conscience remains today. And, it is up to you and me to answer the call and realize his Dream."
On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his powerful speech during the March on Washington.
