As the 50th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. approaches, his dream of freedom, justice and equality for all humans still has not happened, his son, Martin Luther King III, said Saturday, pointing to the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by police in his grandmother's backyard.
"We just saw what happened in Sacramento just a few days ago," King told CNN. "A young man was shot, with a telephone in his hand, 20 times. One day, justice must be real for all mankind."
Clark was hit seven times from behind, according to autopsy results released Friday by a pathologist hired by his family. The findings that called into question the department's assertion that the 22-year-old black man was facing officers and walking toward them when he was killed.
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, is planning an all-day of remembrance on April 4 to commemorate his life and message.
The event will include performances and speeches, including from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, both of whom spoke at King's March on Washington in 1963.
"My mom always focused on [his] birthday, although on the date of his passing or his killing, we actually would always lay a wreath and have a kind of quiet ceremony," the younger King commented. "But in this context, it is a very interesting set of circumstances because this is right after the backdrop of a major demonstration around guns in Washington, D.C. just a week or so ago."
King said he does think his father's words and actions still inspire people around the globe, but there is still the fact that the "triple evils of poverty, racism, and militarism and violence" are still in place in the United States.
"We have unquestionably at least 48 million people living in poverty in this country," said King. "That is unacceptable with a $20 trillion economy. We have racial issues that seem to be rising. I still think the vast majority of Americans are not, do not harbor racist views. But we still have work do around that which we will do now because the president raises the issue and finally militarism and violence is something that we have to continue to work on."
Meanwhile, he said he believes last week's March for Our Lives in Washington was powerful because it was led by high school students, and that he was proud of his young daughter, nine-year-old Yolanda, for speaking.
"I haven't seen that since 1963, when 3,000 students were arrested in Birmingham ...so how we should be observing this, and I have obviously mixed emotions about it, but it really is about continuing the work."
And when his daughter took the stage, King said seeing her there and addressing the crowd of thousands was 'the most incredible feeling in my life other than her being born."
He said the family did not prompt his daughter, but did reach out to the Parkland students organizing the march to offer assistance.
"We then talked about this chant that she does about the future of this generation, and then we sent that to them," King said.
"In fact, we learned at 8:30 Saturday morning that they wanted her to come out and she was going to be a surprise guest," King said. "She had come to her own conclusion as to what she was going to say."
Guns are not a new concern for his daughter, King said. Two years ago, in February 2016, when the family visited the White House to view the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. that was placed in the Oval Office, his daughter then said she wanted to ask the president what he was going to do about guns.