Dexter King | |
|---|---|
 King in 1999 | |
| Born | Dexter Scott King (1961-01-30)January 30, 1961 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | January 22, 2024(2024-01-22) (aged 62) Malibu, California, U.S. |
| Education | Morehouse College |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Son ofMartin Luther King Jr. Chairman,The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change |
| Spouse | [1] |
| Parent(s) | Martin Luther King Jr. Coretta Scott King |
| Relatives | Alberta Williams King (grandmother) Martin Luther King Sr. (grandfather) Yolanda Denise King (sister) Bernice King (sister) Martin Luther King III (brother) Alveda King (cousin) Edythe Scott Bagley (aunt) Christine King Farris (aunt) |
Dexter Scott King (January 30, 1961 – January 22, 2024) was an Americancivil rights activist,animal rights activist, and an author. The second son of civil rights leadersMartin Luther King Jr. andCoretta Scott King, he was also the brother ofMartin Luther King III,Bernice King, andYolanda King; and also the grandson ofAlberta Williams King andMartin Luther King Sr. He is the author ofGrowing Up King: An Intimate Memoir.
Dexter Scott King was born on January 30, 1961, atChildren's Healthcare of Atlanta – Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital inAtlanta, Georgia, toMartin Luther King Jr. andCoretta Scott King.[2] and named after theDexter Avenue Baptist Church inMontgomery, Alabama, where his father was pastor before moving to theEbenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.[3] His oldest sisterYolanda watched after him.[4]
King was seven years old whenhis father was assassinated in 1968.[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 ofHarry Belafonte, who set up a trust fund for them years prior to their father's assassination.[7] King attended theDemocratic National Convention in 1972, which led him to gain an interest in politics.[8]
King attended his father's alma mater ofMorehouse College, where he studiedbusiness administration from 1979 to 1984. He left Morehouse before completing his degree.[9]
King split his time between Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as chairman of theKing Center for Nonviolent Social Change, andMalibu, 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 "aWest 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 dedicatedvegan andanimal rights activist, having been introduced to vegetarianism in the late 1980s byDick Gregory.[14][15]
On August 24, 2013, King attended the 50th anniversary of theMarch on Washington, the event at which his father delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.[16]
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 anEmmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.[19]
Dexter Scott King also portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2002 American television movieThe Rosa Parks Story.[18][20]
In 1997, 29 years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, Dexter met withJames 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 ofJ. 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 theMemphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark who he named as the killer. Once again, beyond that you hadcredible 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 toPresidentLyndon 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 pursuedAndrew 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]
In July 2013, Dexter married Leah Weber in a private ceremony in California.[1]
| External image | |
|---|---|
 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 auntChristine 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] With regard 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 chargedThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution with "viciously attacking" his family after the newspaper printed a claim by a German television program that his sisterBernice wanted $4,000 or $5,000 for a ten-minute interview, which King denied.[38]
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 Scott 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 withPenguin Books.[40][41][42]
These lawsuits were filed inFulton County, Georgia Superior Court and weresettled 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's1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal, was settled out of court. Former U.S. presidentJimmy Carter served as one of the mediators.[45]
Dexter King died ofprostate cancer at his home in Malibu, California, on January 22, 2024, 8 days before his 63rd birthday.[46][47]
On-screen credit at 4:40
April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006 | |
| Life | |
| Other | |
| Reaction | |
| Namesakes | |
| Family |
|
| Depictions |
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
