Chicago protests: Where do we go from here? Martin Luther King III weighs in after city, national unrest

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Many are wondering where we go after the week of unrest in the streets of Chicago and cities all over the country. Martin Luther King, III, offered his perspective.

"I know we're a better nation than this," he said.

That belief makes him hopeful. King said he is already looking to the future.

"I am very concerned about how we bring community back together," he said. "Dad wrote a book, his last book was 'Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community,' and clearly we are in a spiraling chaos in this particular moment."

Still, the chaos is not exactly surprising to him.

"I don't know that I'm surprised. I never believe that we can achieve our best self by engaging in violence, though I understand. Violence, Dad said, is the language of the unheard," said King.

He sees a lot of parallels between our current protests and the Memphis sanitation workers' demand for dignity in 1968. They marched with signs reading, "I am a man."

That plea for recognition drew Martin Luther King, Jr. into the city where he was assassinated.

"Black people are calling out, saying 'We are human beings, we should be treated with dignity and respect. We should not have to request or require or demand. It should be normal because we are human beings,'" he said.

King said in the aftermath of this latest unrest, perhaps there should be an economic showdown much like the Montgomery bus boycott triggered by Rosa Parks.

"Because that is certainly one of the non-violent avenues that we that we might engage in to bring about some change," he said. "If there was ever a time we needed it, it seems like this is that time."