Realizing the Dream, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2006 by Martin Luther King III to carry on the legacy of his parents, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the organization carries out initiatives on both the domestic and international level. The mission of Realizing the Dream is "To champion freedom, justice, and equality by working to eliminate poverty, build community and foster peace through nonviolence." Two of Realizing the Dream's main projects are the 50 Communities Network, an effort against American poverty, and the Generation II Global Peace Initiative, a peace-building team composed of sons, daughters and grandchildren of leading 20th century activists. [1]
According to its website and promotional materials, Realizing the Dream's work consists of five separate programs:
The Poverty Project seeks to redress poverty both in the United States and throughout the world. The domestic aspect of the program is the Poverty in America project, which "is a national call to leadership aimed at fueling local efforts to ignite sustainable private investment in communities carrying the legacy of the King name." The effort is focused on the "50 Communities Network," which is a "coalition of community organizers, organizations, and local leadership with whom Mr. King has visited, toured, and engaged since the inception of Realizing the Dream, Inc." The international component of the effort is currently in development, but Realizing the Dream has begun to establish it through recent visits to India, [2] Kenya, [3] Serbia [4] and Bosnia and Herzegovina. [5]
Generation II Global Peace (Gen II) brings together the second generation of some of the 20th century's most prominent peace icons to address instances of conflict and injustice worldwide. According to Realizing the Dream's website, the program was launched in London, England in July 2007, with the inaugural members being King Abdullah II of Jordan; Christine Chavez-Delgado; Nadim Gemayel; Saad Hariri; Kerry Kennedy; Martin Luther King III; Cheml Peres; Dalia Rabin-Pelossof; Justin Trudeau; and Naomi Tutu.
International Youth Corps is a leadership development program for young people, aged 18–35, who are recruited to join Realizing the Dream on international trips. The Corps has engaged in two separate journeys to date, the first to Israel in March 2008 and the second to Kenya in March 2009. [6]
International Fellows Institute is a virtual academy of scholars focused on international research in pressing global topics regarding redressing poverty, building community and fostering peace.
International Scholars Intern Program provides selected students and recent graduates the opportunity to engage in substantive internships in the United States and throughout the world with scholars who are Realizing the Dream International Fellows.
In October 2008, Realizing the Dream hosted a national conference in Washington, D.C. entitled the "Summit to Realize the Dream". [7] The event focused on the issues of poverty, civic engagement and violence and was cosponsored by several other national organizations, including the National Urban League, Half in Ten Campaign, Points of Light Institute, ServiceNation, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, and YouthBuild USA. Some of the speakers and panelists who participated in the event were Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Hon. Jack Kemp, Congressman John Lewis, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, former Senator Harris Wofford, Thomas Sander of Harvard University, Alan Khazei of Be the Change, Inc. and Dorothy Stoneman of YouthBuild.
Realizing the Dream has also presented various awards to prominent American and international activists. At the "Realizing the Dream Awards" during President Obama's inauguration weekend in January 2009, the organization honored Congressman John Lewis with the 'Drum Major Award' for his lifetime of work for civil rights and nonviolence; others honored at the same event included Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Reverend Claude Black of San Antonio and democracy-activist Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. [8] The previous year, Martin Luther King III and Realizing the Dream presented former President Bill Clinton with the 'Realizing the Dream Award' for his continued humanitarian work around the world. [9]
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. A black church leader and a son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosophy of abstention from violence. It may be based on moral, religious or spiritual principles, or the reasons for it may be strategic or pragmatic. Failure to distinguish between the two types of nonviolent approaches can lead to distortion in the concept's meaning and effectiveness, which can subsequently result in confusion among the audience. Although both principled and pragmatic nonviolent approaches preach for nonviolence, they may have distinct motives, goals, philosophies, and techniques. However, rather than debating the best practice between the two approaches, both can indicate alternative paths for those who do not want to use violence.
Walter Edward Fauntroy Jr. is an American pastor, civil rights activist, and politician who was the Washington, D.C. delegate to the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1991. He was a candidate for the 1972 and 1976 Democratic presidential nominations as a favorite son.
James Morris Lawson Jr. is an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his civil rights activism in 1960, and later served as a pastor in Los Angeles for 25 years.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres (0.14 km2) and includes several sites in Atlanta, Georgia related to the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Within the park is his boyhood home, and Ebenezer Baptist Church — the church where King was baptized and both he and his father, Martin Luther King Sr., were pastors — as well as, the grave site of King, Jr., and his wife, civil rights activist Coretta Scott King.
Martin Luther King III is an American human rights activist, philanthropist and advocate. The elder son of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, King served as the fourth president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1997 to 2004. As of 2024, he is a Professor of practice at the University of Virginia.
Bernice Albertine King is an American lawyer, minister, and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was five years old when her father died in 1968. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17 when she was invited to speak at the United Nations. Twenty years after her father was assassinated, she preached her trial sermon, inspired by her parents' activism.
The Big Six—Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young—were the leaders of six prominent civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
The Poor People's Campaign, or Poor People's March on Washington, was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and carried out under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy in the wake of King's assassination in April 1968.
Nonviolence International (NI) acts as a network of resource centers that promote the use of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance. They have maintained relationships with activists in a number of countries, with their most recent projects taking place in Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine. They partnered with International Center on Nonviolent Conflict to update Gene Sharp's seminal work on 198 methods of nonviolent action through a book publication. NI has also produced a comprehensive database of nonviolence tactics, which stands as the largest collection of nonviolent tactics in the world. They partner with Rutgers University to provide the largest collection of nonviolence training materials in the world.
Marc Kielburger is a Canadian author, social entrepreneur, columnist, humanitarian and activist for children's rights. He is the co-founder, along with his brother Craig, of the We Movement, which consists of the WE Charity, an international development and youth empowerment organization; Me to We, a for-profit company selling lifestyle products, leadership training and travel experience; and We Day, an annual youth empowerment event. In 2010, he was named a member of the Order of Canada by the Governor General of Canada.
Louis Vitale, OFM, was an American Franciscan friar, peace activist, and a co-founder of Nevada Desert Experience. His religious beliefs led him to participate in civil disobedience actions at peace demonstrations and acts of religious witness over 40 years. In the name of peace, Vitale has been arrested more than 400 times. Vitale stated that Francis of Assisi, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. provided him with inspiration.
The World Policy Council of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity is a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank established in 1996 at Howard University to expand the fraternity's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass important global and world issues. They describe their mission as to "address issues of concern to our brotherhood, our communities, our Nation, and the world."
Bernard Lafayette, Jr. is an American civil rights activist and organizer, who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He played a leading role in early organizing of the Selma Voting Rights Movement; was a member of the Nashville Student Movement; and worked closely throughout the 1960s movements with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the American Friends Service Committee.
Craig Kielburger is a Canadian human rights activist and social entrepreneur. He is the co-founder, with his brother Marc Kielburger, of the WE Charity, as well as We Day and the independent, social enterprise Me to We. On April 11, 2008, Kielburger was named a member of the Order of Canada.
Glenn Smiley was a white civil rights consultant and leader. He closely studied the doctrine of Mahatma Gandhi and became convinced that racism and segregation were most likely to be overcome without the use of violence, and began studying and teaching peaceful tactics. As an employee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), he visited Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 during the Montgomery bus boycott where Smiley advised King and his associates on nonviolent tactics, and was able to convince King that nonviolence was a feasible solution to racial tension. Smiley, together with Bayard Rustin and others, helped convince King and his associates that complete nonviolence and nonviolent direct action were the most effective methods and tools to use during protest. After the Civil Rights Movement, Smiley continued to employ nonviolence and worked for several organizations promoting peace in South American countries. Just three years before his 1993 death, Smiley opened the King Center in Los Angeles.
Communities Without Boundaries International (CWBI) is an international non-governmental organization carrying out peacebuilding and sustainable development projects, founded on the philosophy and principles of nonviolence as espoused by Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi.
The International Pfeffer Peace Award or Pfeffer Peace Award is one of the three peace awards presented by the United States Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), along with the Martin Luther King Jr. Award and the Nyack Area Peace Award. Since 1989, it has been awarded annually to "individuals or organizations whose commitment to peace, justice, and reconciliation is recognized as extraordinary."
George Russell Lakey is an activist, sociologist, and writer who added academic underpinning to the concept of nonviolent revolution. He also refined the practice of experiential training for activists which he calls "Direct Education". A Quaker, he has co-founded and led numerous organizations and campaigns for justice and peace.