USA
Son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King dies
Dexter King, son of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Photo
© Helen Comer/The Jackson Sun via AP/dpa
“I have a dream”: These words made Martin Luther King world famous. Now the civil rights activist’s youngest son has died. He looked quite similar to his father.
The youngest son of the black civil rights activist Martin Luther King (1929-1968), Dexter Scott King, died of prostate cancer at the age of 62.
Dexter died in his sleep on Monday (local time) at his home in Malibu, California, as the King Center in Atlanta announced on its website, citing his wife Leah Weber King. Dexter had led the organization that manages his father’s legacy for several years.
Dexter was born in Atlanta in 1961. His parents named him after the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father first emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement. Dexter was seven years old when his father was shot in 1968. The New York Times wrote that he was watching television at home when news of the attack suddenly interrupted his program. As an adult, he looked very much like his father.
In 1963, Martin Luther King called for equal rights for blacks and whites in the USA with the legendary words “I have a dream” in front of around 250,000 people. He had four children. Daughter Yolanda died in 2007. According to the New York Times, there were repeated disputes between the siblings about their father’s legacy.