Keeping the Dream Alive

Yolanda’s parents are both civil rights activists. Her mother, Arndrea Waters King, and her father, Martin Luther King III, have devoted their lives to advancing racial equality. They also oversee several organizations dedicated to continuing the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Yolanda’s parents always told her that her grandparents changed the country and the world. “Activism has always been a part of my life,” she says. “I think that seeing my parents do it influenced me to get involved. But they never pressured me. It was my own decision.” 

When she was 9, Yolanda spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., in 2018. According to march organizers more than 800,000 people attended the rally to demand stricter gun control laws. Yolanda modeled her speech on her grandfather’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. She told the crowd, “I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world, period.”  

In addition to advocating for gun control, Yolanda works to fight racism and poverty and to expand voting rights. Even though she is passionate about her causes, she says it can sometimes be hard to stay motivated. “Activism can be discouraging,” she says. “That can be the reason why a lot of people may not want to get involved. There have been times when I’ve considered stepping down from doing this work.” 

To stay focused on her own goals, and to help other young people stay hopeful about the future, Yolanda wrote a children’s book. “I want this book to serve as inspiration for people, to remind them of the kind of world we want to create,” she says.

In the book, Yolanda writes as though she is talking to her grandparents. “You were gone before I came into this world,” she writes. But her grandparents’ dreams continue to live inside her. “I hold fast to all that you stood for—peace, togetherness, harmony, and love,” she goes on to write. 

Yolanda says she wishes that she had gotten a chance to meet her grandparents. If they were still alive today, she would ask them, “Where do you think we should be as a society? How can we go there, and even farther?”