Son of MLK focuses on father's fight against poverty

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=8116155&nav=menu554_2_4

Associated Press - April 3, 2008 7:43 PM ET

ATLANTA (AP) - Forty years after his father's assassination, Martin Luther King the Third is carrying his father's anti-poverty banner.

In an op-ed column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he urges presidential candidates to pledge that within the first 100 days of office they will appoint a cabinet-level official "whose responsibility will be to make a measurable impact on eradicating poverty and allow more Americans to move up into our middle class." King is chairman and CEO of the non-profit Realizing the Dream Incorporated.

Today, he also met with House and Senate leaders for a special observance marking tomorrow's 40th anniversary of his father's assassination in Memphis. In addition to fighting for civil rights, Martin Luther King Junior helped launch the Poor People's Campaign of 1968.