President's Message

MESSAGE FROM ISAAC NEWTON FARRIS, JR.
President and Chief Executive Officer
The King Center

As President of The King Center, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to The King Center’s web pages.

Since the King Center was founded four decades ago, we have amassed a growing list of  significant accomplishments, including: establishing a fitting memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. and a place of pilgrimage for people seeking hope and inspiration from all over the world; providing leadership of the effort to create the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and of the successful movement to establish The King Holiday; and serving as an authoritative educational resource for millions of people all over the world who seek accurate information about his life, historic contributions and teachings.

As the official living memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr., The King Center is the premier resource for educating people from all over the world about my uncle’s life, contributions, teachings and legacy. Through our programs, including The King Papers Project, the King Library and Archives( which is the worlds largest collection of civil rights documents and memorabilia), our exhibits, nonviolence curriculum development (k-12) and other educational resources, we are educating hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world in his teachings. We believe that the study of his principles and methods of nonviolence can help empower people everywhere to promote justice, human rights and peace in the new millennium.

With this conviction, we will meet the daunting challenges that lie ahead, especially fulfilling our commitment to make The King Center and the King Holiday more effective in promoting the great legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and our Founder, the late Coretta Scott King. The King Center is already challenged by the growing public demand for accurate information about Dr. King’s life and work, and with completion of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C., the demands on The King Center are expected to grow exponentially. We are answering this challenge with wholehearted dedication, and we look forward to the future with increasing capabilities and resolve to use the tools of telecommunications to spread Dr. King’s message of non-violent conflict reconciliation and social change across the nation and around the world.

We here at the King Center look to the future with an optimistic spirit of commitment to fulfill The Center’s mission and destiny. We ask for your prayers as we go forward, united, inspired and more determined than ever to create the Beloved Community of Martin Luther King, Jr. With God’s blessing and your support, The King Center will thrive and prosper as a force for peace with justice and a global source of hope and inspiration for all people.