Dexter Scott King, son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., dies of cancer at 62
ATLANTA– Dexter Scott King, who devoted much of his life to shepherding the civil rights legacy of his parents, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died Monday after battling prostate cancer. He was 62.
The King Center in Atlanta, whose chairman was Dexter King, said the civil rights icon’s youngest son died at his home in Malibu, California. His wife, Leah Weber King, said in a statement that he died “peacefully in his sleep.”
Dexter King, the third of the Kings’ four children, was named after Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father served as pastor when the Montgomery bus boycott brought him national fame in the wake of Rosa’s arrest in 1955. Parks.
Dexter King was just seven years old when his father was murdered in April 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
“However, he turned that pain into activism and dedicated his life to furthering the dream that Martin and Coretta Scott King had for their children” and others, the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement. He said Dexter King “left us way too soon.”
Dexter King described the impact his father’s murder had on his childhood and the rest of his life in a 2004 memoir, “Growing Up King.”
“Ever since I was seven, I have felt like I have to be formal,” he wrote, adding, “Formality, seriousness, certainty – these are all difficult attitudes to maintain, even if you are a person with perfect balance, with all the drama that life has to offer.”
As an adult, Dexter King bore such a striking resemblance to his famous father that he was cast to play him in a 2002 TV movie about Parks starring Angela Bassett.
He also worked to protect the royal family’s intellectual property. In addition to being chairman of the King Center, he also served as president of the King Estate.
Dexter King and his siblings, who shared control of the family estate, did not always agree on how to uphold their parents’ legacy.
In a particularly bitter dispute, the siblings ended up in court after Dexter King and his brother tried in 2014 to sell the Nobel Peace Prize their father had been awarded in 1964, along with the civil rights leader’s traveling Bible given by President Barack Obama was used for his second inauguration. . Bernice King said she found the idea unthinkable.
The King siblings settled the dispute in 2016 after former President Jimmy Carter acted as mediator. The items were turned over to the brothers, but other terms of the settlement remained confidential.
Decades earlier, Dexter King made headlines when he publicly stated that he believed James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to his father’s murder in 1969, was innocent. They met in a Nashville jail in 1997, amid a failed attempt by King family members to have Ray put on trial, hoping the case would reveal evidence of a broader conspiracy.
When Ray said during their prison meeting that he was not the killer, Dexter King responded, “I believe you and my family believe you.” But Ray never got a trial. He died the following year of liver failure.
Dexter King is survived by his wife as well as his older brother, Martin Luther King III; his younger sister, the Rev. Bernice A. King; and a teenage niece, Yolanda Renee King.
Coretta Scott King died in 2006, followed by the Kings’ eldest child, Yolanda Denise King, in 2007.
“Words cannot express the heartbreak I feel over the loss of another sibling,” Bernice King said in a statement.
Martin Luther King III said: “The sudden shock is devastating. It’s hard to find the right words at a time like this. We ask for your prayers at this time for the entire royal family.”
A memorial service will be announced later, the King Center said. The family planned a news conference in Atlanta on Tuesday.
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This story has been corrected to remove a reference to Dexter Scott King as an attorney.