King III's Documentary
Traces Poverty in America

By Larry Saxton
WI Staff Writer

Thursday, November 1, 2007A call to action seemed to be the theme of the evening at the preview screening of Martin Luther King III’s new documentary, “Poverty in America.” The documentary chronicles King’s tour of 35 impoverished communities across the country, from Northern California to Washington, D.C., and from New Mexico to Appalachia.

On the tour, he addressed poverty, education, healthcare, affordable housing, unemployment and crime, while challenging our politicians to wake up and focus on fighting poverty in America.

Rev. Andre Shumake, founder of the Richmond Improvement Association, in Richmond, Calif., one of the communities King visited, said he was inspired by the young King’s visit. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was our inspiration when we organized the RIA and modeled it after the Montgomery Improvement Association. It was an honor to have his son Martin come here and highlight work we are doing on behalf of our community,” Shumake said.

The RIA is a faith based organization and Shumake believes the Black church is key to the problems facing Black communities. “Our Black churches in our communities deposit billions of dollars in financial institutions every Monday morning, and the same financial institution in turn wouldn’t give loans to individuals from those same communities,” Shumake said. “Our churches can’t be afraid to get out from behind their doors and into the streets and reach out to our brothers and sons. We need to open the doors of our buildings to be used as training facilities. I love what get from services on Sunday mornings, but that can’t be all we expect to get from church, we the Black church have to change the way we do things."

D. Dexter Vizinau, also from Richmond, Calif. views King’s visit a little differently. “The very Martin Luther King, III, and the spotlight his documentary brought to the issues facing our community in Richmond was a blessing, and it has brought our community together, but it has also put our problems front burners of our politicians and business leaders of our city,” he said.

“They can no longer put us in the background and act as if these problems don’t exist.” The documentary, “Poverty in America,” will premiere in two parts, Nov. 14 and 15th at 8 p.m. on the AmericanLife TV Network.

The pre-screening was hosted by King, journalist Nick Clooney, and Larry Meli, COO of AmericanLife TV Network. “You will see a different face of poverty in this documentary. Those who are just one catastrophic illness from losing everything that they have saved, thinking they were secure, now view poverty Clooney said..

King said he is sounding the trumpet on poverty in America. He said prior to Hurricane Katrina, America was in denial about poverty. “Americans are not as safe and secure as we thought we once were, but we do have the capacity in-house to certainly create the climate that we can have a healthy and viable economy that includes more instead of an economy that excludes many,” King said.

“Someone apparently found a way to make money on poverty, and that’s why the numbers of the impoverished continue to grow. We’ve got to change that. The reality is that until we are sounding that trumpet, as many of us are trying to do, there is not going to be much that changes. We’ people elected to office. It will take all of us rolling up our sleeves and working toward addressing poverty America.”