“What Is My Legacy?” Martin Luther King III's New Book Offers a Path to Fulfillment — Read an Excerpt (Exclusive)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s son wrote the book with wife Arndrea Waters King and legacy architects Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger

Martin Luther King III has carried the weight of his father's legacy since he was born. And now, with a new book, he's hoping to impart the lessons he's learned along the way.

Together with his wife and fellow activist, Arndrea Waters King and legacy architects Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, King is releasing What Is My Legacy?: Realizing a New Dream of Connection, Love and Fulfillment on Jan. 14, 2025, and PEOPLE has an exclusive early excerpt.

The book draws on neuroscience, psychology, epigenetics and their own lived experiences, to create a new framework the authors call "Living Legacy." It’s "based on the simple but profound recognition that our small, day-to-day actions create legacies that have the power to transform, uplift and unite us all," the book's official synopsis reads. "Living Legacy invites us to live our best lives and lives larger than ourselves — and in doing so, discover the most sought-after yet elusive state of being: fulfillment."

Related: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. with 15 of His Most Powerful Quotes

The book, in conjunction with the Realize the Dream campaign, is intended to start a conversation about how individuals can refocus their own stories toward collective change. It includes never-been-told stories from the King family, as well as wisdom from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jay Shetty, Julia Roberts, Yara Shahidi, Rev. Al Sharpton and Sanjay Gupta, among others.

"It’s an extraordinary road map for finding genuine connection, bringing us closer to Dr. King’s dream of a Beloved Community," the synopsis says.

Below, read an excerpt from What Is My Legacy.

Walter Cronkite’s calm voice echoed through the King’s Atlanta home, delivering the heartbreaking news to 10-year-old Martin: His dad had been shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where he’d gone to support striking African American sanitation workers. Upon hearing the announcement, Martin recalls running to his mom’s bedroom with his brother and sisters, hoping beyond hope it wasn’t true. Her TV was on low. Coretta Scott King had been on the phone with Andrew Young, Dr. King’s top lieutenant, who witnessed the shooting. Martin was shot in the neck, he told her. It’s pretty bad. Bring someone with you.

As Martin’s mother raced to the airport, their home filled with friends anxiously waiting for more news, hoping for the best, expecting the worst, which would come soon enough. 

Related: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Son Reveals Why He 'Never Felt Afraid' While Facing Brutal Racism with Dad

The next special bulletin that cut through the chaos of the King home shattered a nation and devastated young Martin. Cronkite again on CBS: “Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement, has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.” 

Martin felt like he was dreaming. I hoped and prayed I would wake up and Dad would be there, and it was just a bad dream. Everyone surrounding him was crying. He can’t remember if he cried, too, but sometimes, all these years later, he weeps when he remembers that day. He was only a boy, and he’d never felt more alone, more detached. He looked for his mom for comfort, but she’d already left the house on her futile mission to reach her dying husband’s side. At the airport, Coretta heard her name echoing over the public address system and knew he was dead. Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. confirmed the devastating news that the assassin’s bullet had killed her husband. She’d heard the threats, seen him stabbed and was home when their house was bombed. All this to say, Coretta knew the cost of trying to make America better. She had made peace with the fact that her husband could be killed. Her four children, of course, had not. 

The eldest son and namesake of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inherited both the aftermath of his family’s traumatic legacy as well as the tremendous legacy of his parents’ monumental impact on the world that reached far beyond the civil rights movement.

Related: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Daughter Calls on People to 'Remember and Honor my Mother, as Well'

Given the enormity of the legacies he’s inherited, Martin has thought about legacy throughout his life. He’s also had to privately work through the trauma, fear and isolation he simultaneously inherited. And at the same time, he’s had to find his authentic voice and way of carrying his magnificent inheritance forward. Martin will be the first to tell you how crucial it’s been for him to learn how to claim and live his own unique legacy. Here, too, is a core incentive for writing and sharing the book.

But truth be told, Martin knows the King Dream is in a fragile state.

Instead of moving closer toward eradicating what ails our world and coming together in the spirit of love and interconnection, we are engulfed in one crisis after another. And all around us, there is more and more to feel afraid of.  

Here’s what else we know for sure: There’s a better way to respond. One that will have an undeniable impact on our world and help us find true fulfillment along the way. This is where your legacy and its power to heal the permacrisis comes in.

An excerpt taken with permission from the book What is My Legacy? Realizing a New Dream of Connection, Love and Fulfillment by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger

What is My Legacy? Realizing a New Dream of Connection, Love and Fulfillment by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger is available for pre-order now.