For years, they were the picture of solidarity: the four children of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, carrying on the legacy of their parents.
But a lawsuit over how their father’s estate is being run has left a rift in one of the world’s most famous families. And it may now be up to a judge to get the King children in the same room.
“Strong parents have strong children, and strong children have strong opinions, and that usually leads to conflicts that they have difficulty reconciling,” said Andrew Young, the former Congressman and Atlanta mayor who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement and remains close to the family.
The lawsuit filed July 10 claims that Dexter King, the youngest King child and administrator of his father’s estate, has failed to provide his surviving siblings with essential documents, including financial records and contracts.
It claims that he and the estate “converted substantial funds from the estate’s financial account ... for their own use” on June 20 without notifying his sister and brother. It is not about money, but instead is a last-resort effort to talk to Dexter King about the family’s affairs, even if it’s through a judge, Young said.
“It’s simply a matter of asking for help,” he said. “That’s consistent with the civil rights movement. Everything we did, we went to judges to reconcile the differences. “I don’t think there’s any animosity or hostility involved in it.”
Bernice and Martin Luther King III both declined to be interviewed for this story. Dexter King did not respond to an interview request placed through The King Center.
It was a dispute of that center in 2005 that showed some chinks in the King children’s armor. Bernice and Martin Luther King III, took sides against the others when they opposed the sale of the center. They argued that the deal would compromise the center’s independent voice. Their mother, Coretta Scott King, founded the center shortly after her husband’s death in 1968, and it needed more than $11 million in repairs.
Before the issue could be resolved, Coretta Scott King died of complications from a stroke and ovarian cancer at age 78. As her children worked to get her affairs in order, Martin Luther King III, said he and his siblings were forced to talk more.
“In the past, there could be times when we didn’t talk, but now, that can’t be the case,” he said in a December 2006 interview with The Associated Press. “We have never been at odds, per se. We have disagreed on issues.”
In the year that followed their mother’s death, the eldest, Yolanda, held the family together. But then she died from a heart attack at age 52 in Malibu, Calif., where she and Dexter lived and were pursuing careers in entertainment.
Since then, Dexter has drifted further from his older siblings. He was conspicuously absent from both the King holiday celebration in January and the 40th anniversary of his father’s assassination in April.
The split is difficult for all three grieving siblings, said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, another King lieutenant and family friend.
“I think they’re all hurt,” Lowery said. “He hated to have it done to him, and they hated to have to do it to him.”
Lowery said he was not surprised to hear of the lawsuit, as the siblings had their differences, even when their mother was alive.
“They talk, they just don’t communicate,” Lowery said, adding that it was often Yolanda King that served as a bridge between the other three. “That bridge is no longer there.”
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