By Tiamiyu Arobani
New York – President-elect Donald Trump, who spent the weekend engaged in a war of words with civil rights activist and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, met on Monday with Martin Luther King III to discuss voting rights.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest son walked into Trump Tower at 12:51 p.m. with a handful of colleagues affiliated with the Drum Major Institute, a progressive public policy think tank where he is president, according to Washington Post.
“Today, President-elect Trump is going to sit down with Martin Luther King III and others in New York and have a conversation about voting, about bringing more people into the system, the legacy of Doctor King and how we can continue to pursue that under the Trump administration,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer had said on Monday.
The private session at Trump Tower with civil rights advocates, on the same day the nation is honouring Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, represents a mix of symbolism and substance.
King III has campaigned for years to establish a form of free government photo identification that could make it easier for Americans who lack a driver’s license or other official ID to cast ballots.
He and the other attendees, including the Rev. James Forbes, have urged Trump to endorse the idea of making such identification free.
But it also provides Trump, who is viewed largely in unfavourable terms by African Americans, with an opening to the black community.
In national exit polling in November, black voters favoured Hillary Clinton over Trump by a margin of 89 per cent to 8 per cent respectively.
Trump tweeted on Monday: “Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and all the many wonderful things that he stood for. Honour him for the great man that he was!”
Many African American leaders see the distribution of a free government ID as a critical boost to low-income Americans who cannot open a bank account without one.
The lack of an ID not only makes it more difficult to vote in several states, but it also often makes individuals dependent on check-cashing operations that charge high commissions.
In a letter to Trump, former UN ambassador and civil rights activist Andrew Young, who was invited to attend but had a scheduling conflict in Tennessee, wrote that when he and others have pressed for the change, “I always ask who could possibly be opposed to such a common sense solution and receive only one answer: check cashers.
“A photo ID card is truly a freedom card”.
King III, who had urged the Obama administration to make a government photo ID ubiquitous, invited Trump on Jan. 8 to commemorate his father’s birthday by accompanying him on a visit to his memorial on the Mall.
Instead, Trump’s aides suggested that they meet at Trump Tower.
All of the meeting attendees have a connection to the Drum Major Institute, which pledges to carry “forward the nonviolent social change legacy of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. by promoting economic justice, building community, and fostering a global culture of civil and human rights”.
Young, who is chairman emeritus of the Drum Major Institute, wrote Trump that he thought it was appropriate for his colleagues to go ahead with the meeting, “having sent an invitation before the regrettable exchange between you and my friend John Lewis”.
“The first rule of Kingian nonviolence is that you can never find common ground without conversation,” he added.
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post last week, King III noted that Trump won in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where minority turnout declined and stricter voter identification requirements may have deterred some minorities from voting.
“While we can’t know how those affected would have voted, we can agree that every citizen should have the unfettered opportunity to vote.
“Indeed, my concern is not how people vote,” he wrote.
