Mourning the loss of Dexter Scott King. Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest son died of prostate cancer. He was 62 years old.
When his famous father was murdered in April 1968, Dexter Scott King was only seven years old. Now the son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King has died of prostate cancer at the age of 62.
The King Center in Atlanta, where Dexter King was chairman, said the civil rights icon’s younger son died at his home in Malibu, California. His wife, Leah Weber King, said in a statement that he died “peacefully in his sleep.” “The sudden shock is devastating,” Martin Luther King III, Dexter King’s older brother, said in a statement. “It is difficult to find the right words in a moment like this. We ask that you pray for the entire King family at this time.” His younger sister Bernice also commented: “Words cannot express how heartbroken the loss of another sibling is.” Yolanda Denise King, the Kings’ eldest child, died in 2007.
Dexter Scott King was the third of four children
Dexter Scott King had dedicated much of his life to carrying on his parents’ civil rights legacy. He was the third of the Kings’ four children and was named after the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father served as pastor. He described the impact of his father’s murder on his childhood and the rest of his life in his 2004 memoir, “Growing Up King.”
“Ever since I was seven, I’ve felt like I have to be formal,” he wrote, adding: “Formality, seriousness, certainty – these are all difficult poses to maintain, with all the drama life throws at you – even when you is a person with perfect balance.”
As an adult, Dexter King bore such a resemblance to his famous father that he portrayed him in a 2002 biopic about African-American Rosa Parks, starring Angela Bassett. In addition to serving as chairman of the King Center, he was also president of the King estate. He shared control of the family fortune with his two surviving siblings.
Dispute over Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy
A bitter dispute broke out between them in 2014 after Dexter King and his brother attempted to sell the Nobel Peace Prize their father won in 1964, as well as the civil rights leader’s traveling bible, which President Barack Obama used at his second inauguration. Bernice King said she found the idea unthinkable. They settled the dispute in 2016 after former President Jimmy Carter acted as mediator. The items were released to the brothers, but other terms of the settlement were kept confidential.
Dexter King had made headlines decades earlier when he publicly stated that he believed James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the murder of his father in 1969, to be innocent. The two met in a Nashville prison in 1997. When Ray said during their prison meeting that he was not the murderer, Dexter King replied, “I believe you and my family believes you.” But Ray never got a trial. He died the following year of liver failure.
King’s family has scheduled a news conference in Atlanta for Tuesday.
Watch the video above: In 2018, on the 50th anniversary of the death of US civil rights activist Martin Luther King, then US President Donald Trump praised his commitment to justice, equality and freedom. That was surprising given what Trump usually said.
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I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
