Dexter King

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Dexter King
King in 1999
Born
Dexter Scott King

(1961-01-30)January 30, 1961
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
DiedJanuary 22, 2024(2024-01-22) (aged 62)
Malibu, California, U.S.
EducationMorehouse College
Occupation(s)Civil rights activist, advocate
Known forSon of Martin Luther King Jr.
Chairman, The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change
Spouse
Leah Weber
​
(m. 2013)​
[1]
Parent(s)Martin Luther King Jr. (father)
Coretta Scott King (mother)
RelativesYolanda Denise King (sister)
Alberta Williams King (paternal grandmother)
Martin Luther King Sr. (paternal grandfather)
Martin Luther King III (brother)
Bernice Albertine King (sister)
Alveda King (paternal first cousin)
Edythe Scott Bagley (maternal aunt)
Christine King Farris (paternal aunt)

Dexter Scott King (January 30, 1961 – January 22, 2024) was an American civil and animal rights activist, attorney, and author. The second son of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, he was also the brother of Martin Luther King III, Bernice King, and Yolanda King; and also grandson of Alberta Williams King and Martin Luther King Sr. He is the author of Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir.

Early life[edit]

Dexter Scott King was born on January 30, 1961, at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta – Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.[2] and named after the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father was pastor before moving to the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.[3] His eldest sister Yolanda watched after him.[4]

King was seven years old when his father was assassinated.[5] He was watching television with his older brother, Martin III, when they saw a news flash about the shooting.[6] King and his siblings were assured an education thanks to the help of Harry Belafonte, who set up a trust fund for them years prior to their father's assassination.[7] King attended the Democratic National Convention in 1972, which led him to gain an interest in politics.[8]

King attended his father's alma mater of Morehouse College, where he studied business administration from 1979 to 1984. He left Morehouse before graduating.[9]

Work[edit]

King split his time between Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as chairman of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and Malibu, California.[10]

In May 1989, King's mother named the twenty-eight-year-old as her successor as president of the King Center. Before his mother's choice, King openly expressed interest in changing the King Center into "a West Point of nonviolent training".[11][12] Dexter Scott King served as president of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, but resigned only four months after taking the office after a dispute with his mother. He resumed the position in 1994, but the King Center's influence was sharply reduced by then.[10] As President, he cut the number of staff from 70 to 14 and shut down a child care center among a shift from conventional activities to prioritizing preserving his father's legacy. Reflecting, King admitted that the time was not right since he was "probably moving faster than the board was ready to".[13]

Dexter was a dedicated vegan and animal rights activist, having been introduced to vegetarianism in the late 1980s by Dick Gregory.[14][15]

On August 24, 2013, King attended the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the event at which his father delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.[16]

Film[edit]

Dexter Scott King voiced his father's 34-year-old self in the 1999 educational film, Our Friend, Martin.[17][18] The film was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.[19]

Dexter Scott King also portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2002 American television movie The Rosa Parks Story.[18][20]

Loyd Jowers trial[edit]

Main article: Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories

In 1997, 29 years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, Dexter met with James Earl Ray, the man imprisoned for his father's 1968 murder. When confronting him, King asked Ray, "I just want to ask you, for the record, um, did you kill my father?" Ray replied, "No-no I didn't." King then told Ray that he along with the rest of the King family believed him.[21][22] King and Ray had then discussed the latter's health and the actions of J. Edgar Hoover.[23] King also told him that his family believed in his testament of innocence and were seeking to help him. The two spoke privately after 25 minutes with reporters, and King asserted to reporters that he did not know who killed his father and that this uncertainty was the cause of their request for a new trial.[24] As he asserted that he did not believe Ray had any role in his father's death, he brought up evidence taken from the scene such as the murder weapon and concluded that Ray would not have disposed of it near the scene of the crime, calling his belief as having been in his "gut".[25]

At a 1999 press conference, Dexter was subsequently asked by a reporter, "there are many people out there who feel that as long as these conspirators remain nameless and faceless there is no true closure, and no justice". He replied:

No, he [Loyd Jowers] named the shooter. The shooter was the Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark who he named as the killer. Once again, beyond that you had credible witnesses that named members of a Special Forces team who didn't have to act because the contract killer succeeded, with plausible denial, a Mafia contracted killer.[26]

His belief towards a conspiracy extended to President Lyndon B. Johnson.[27] He believed that with the evidence he was shown, there would be difficulty "for something of that magnitude to occur on his watch and he not be privy to it".[28] King pursued Andrew Young to get him involved, and Young changed his position on the assassination of his father after being visited by Dexter in the spring of 1997. His position had always been "that it didn't matter who killed Dr. King but what killed him".[29]

Filmography and literary works[edit]

Actor[edit]

Producer[edit]

  • King Holiday by King Dream Chorus & Holiday Crew (1986)[32]
  • Living the Dream: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1988)[citation needed]

Author[edit]

  • King, Dexter Scott; Wiley, Ralph (January 7, 2003). Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9780759527331.

Personal life[edit]

In July 2013, Dexter married Leah Weber in a private ceremony in California.[1]

Family[edit]

External image
image icon Coretta Scott King and her son Dexter, listening to Martin Luther King, Jr., speak to a crowd at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. [33]

King's mother, Coretta Scott King, died on January 30, 2006, at age 78 on his 45th birthday.[34]

Dexter's elder sister, Yolanda, collapsed at the home of his best friend, Philip Madison Jones, on May 15, 2007. King called his aunt Christine King Farris and reported that he had tried to save her, but was not successful and was transporting her to the hospital.[35] She could not be revived and died at age 51. Her family believes she had a heart condition. Dexter spoke to her just an hour before her death, and did not think much of it when she told him she was tired due to her "hectic" schedule.[36] In regards to his sister's death and the role she had played in his life, King stated

She gave me permission. She allowed me to give myself permission to be me.[37]

Dexter charged The Atlanta Journal-Constitution with "viciously attacking" his family after the newspaper printed a claim by a German television program that his sister Bernice wanted $4,000 or $5,000 for a ten-minute interview, which King denied.[38]

Lawsuits[edit]

On July 11, 2008, Dexter King was sued by his sister Bernice King and brother Martin Luther King III; in addition, he was sued by Bernice King on behalf of the estate of Coretta King. The lawsuit alleged that Dexter improperly took funds from their parents' estate.[39] Dexter filed countersuits against his siblings over their use of the King Center and over the ownership of their mother's personal papers, which he wanted to share with a biographer for a deal with Penguin Books.[40][41][42]

These lawsuits were filed in Fulton County, Georgia Superior Court and were settled out of court in October 2009.[43] In 2010, the three supported that year's census, seemingly indicating they had reaffirmed their relationships since the dispute.[44] In 2016, the siblings' remaining legal dispute, over the ownership of King's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal, was settled out of court. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter served as one of the mediators.[45]

Death[edit]

Dexter King died of prostate cancer at home in Malibu, California, on January 22, 2024, at the age of 62, just 8 days before his 63rd birthday.[46][47]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Poole, Sheila; Ernie Suggs (July 15, 2013). "Dexter King marries longtime girlfriend Leah Weber". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016.
  2. ^ King, Dexter Scott; Wiley, Ralph (2003-01-07). Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7595-2733-1.
  3. ^ "King, Dexter Scott". The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  4. ^ "First Christmas without him. Inside MLK's home in 1968". Youtube.
  5. ^ Whack, Errin Haines (April 3, 2018). "50 years after MLK's death, his children are still grieving". Chicago Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  6. ^ "King's youngest: Weighty legacy a blessing". CNN. January 21, 2003. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  7. ^ "King's Kids Assured Education by Belafonte". Jet. April 18, 1968.
  8. ^ Dexter Scott King. Ebony. January 1987.
  9. ^ "King at Morehouse".
  10. ^ a b Firestone, David. "A civil rights group suspends, then reinstates, its president." The New York Times, July 26, 2001. Retrieved on 2008-08-28.
  11. ^ "Rev. King's Son, Dexter, Resigns From Position as President of the King Center". Jet. August 28, 1989.
  12. ^ "Son Dexter To Take Reign of The King Center in Atlanta". Jet. February 6, 1989.
  13. ^ Dyson, p. 270.
  14. ^ Church, Jill Howard (October 1995). "A King Among Men". Vegetarian Times. p. 128. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  15. ^ LaBorde, Olivia (January 22, 2024). "Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest son Dexter has died at age 62". CNN. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  16. ^ Dietsch, Kevin (August 24, 2013). "50th anniversary of the March on Washington". UPI. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Our Friend, Martin". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  18. ^ a b c d e Corson, Pete (January 10, 2017). "Actors who have played Martin Luther King Jr". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  19. ^ "Our Friend Martin". Emmys. Television Academy. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  20. ^ a b Fries, Laura (February 21, 2002). "The Rosa Parks Story". Variety. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  21. ^ "Today in History March 27". Associated Press. March 26, 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  22. ^ Sack, Kevin (28 March 1997). "Dr. King's Son Says Family Believes Ray Is Innocent". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  23. ^ Harrison, Eric (March 28, 1997). "King's Son Meets Ray, Agrees He's Not Assassin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  24. ^ Dexter King Visits James Earl Ray in Prison; Says He Believes Ray is Innocent. Jet. April 14, 1997.
  25. ^ Who Killed King?. Ebony. May 1997.
  26. ^ "The Transcription of the King Family Press Conference on the MLK Assassination Trial Verdict". Archived from the original on September 1, 2009.
  27. ^ Sack, Kevin (June 20, 1997). "Son of Dr. King Asserts L.B.J. Role in Plot". The New York Times.
  28. ^ "Dexter King: I Think LBJ Knew About Assassination". Orlando Sentinel. June 20, 1997.
  29. ^ Curry, pp. 489–490.
  30. ^ "1–800 Missing S01:E16 – Lost Sister". Tubi. Retrieved January 22, 2024. On-screen credit at 4:40
  31. ^ "King Holiday Music Video". Whitney Houston. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  32. ^ "King Holiday". Whitney Houston. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  33. ^ "Coretta Scott King and her son Dexter, listening to Martin Luther King, Jr., speak to a crowd at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama". Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
  34. ^ "Events in the Life of Coretta Scott King". NPR. January 31, 2006. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  35. ^ Farris, p. 189.
  36. ^ Haines, Errin (May 24, 2007). "Hundreds Mourn Eldest of King Children". The Washington Post.
  37. ^ "Hundreds pay tribute to Yolanda King". USA Today. May 24, 2007.
  38. ^ Dyson, p. 261.
  39. ^ "Lawsuit deepens rift among King children". NBC News. Associated Press. July 19, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  40. ^ Brown, Robbie (October 13, 2008). "Dr. King's Children Battling Over Book". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  41. ^ Wheaton, Sarah (October 13, 2009). "King Siblings Settle Estate Lawsuit". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  42. ^ "King siblings battle brother in court". NBC News. Associated Press. October 18, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  43. ^ "King Children Settle Longstanding Feud". BET. October 13, 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  44. ^ "2010 Census Message: The King Family". U.S. Census Bureau. May 4, 2010.
  45. ^ "Martin Luther King Jr.'s heirs settle Nobel medal dispute: judge". Raw Story. Reuters. August 15, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  46. ^ "Dexter Scott King, younger son of Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 62". Associated Press. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  47. ^ "Dexter Scott King, son of Martin Luther King Jr., has died at the age of 62". Fox5 Atlanta. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.

Works cited[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dexter Scott King.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Dexter Scott King.


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