Dexter King, son of the late civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., listens to arguments within the State Courtroom of Prison Appeals in Jackson, Tenn., Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, to find out whether or not two Memphis judges overstepped their authority surrounding the investigation of the King assassination. The King Heart in Atlanta stated the 62-year-old died Monday at his California dwelling. Helen Comer/The Jackson Solar by way of AP cover caption
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Helen Comer/The Jackson Solar by way of AP
Dexter King, son of the late civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr., listens to arguments within the State Courtroom of Prison Appeals in Jackson, Tenn., Friday, Aug. 29, 1997, to find out whether or not two Memphis judges overstepped their authority surrounding the investigation of the King assassination. The King Heart in Atlanta stated the 62-year-old died Monday at his California dwelling.
Helen Comer/The Jackson Solar by way of AP
ATLANTA — Dexter Scott King, the youthful son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died Monday after battling prostate most cancers.
The King Heart in Atlanta, which Dexter King served as chairman, stated the 62-year-old son of the civil rights icon died at his dwelling in Malibu, California. His spouse, Leah Weber King, stated in an announcement that he died “peacefully in his sleep.”
The third of the Kings’ 4 youngsters, Dexter King was named for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, the place his father served as a pastor when the Montgomery bus boycott launched him to nationwide prominence within the wake of the 1955 arrest of Rosa Parks.
Dexter King was simply 7 years previous when his father was assassinated in April 1968 whereas supporting hanging sanitation staff in Memphis, Tennessee. In his 2004 memoir, “Rising Up King,” Dexter King recalled his father’s slaying as the tip of a carefree childhood.
“Ever since I used to be seven, I’ve felt I have to be formal,” he wrote, including: “Formality, seriousness, certitude — all these are tough poses to take care of, even should you’re an individual with good equilibrium, with all of the drama life throws at you.”
As an grownup, Dexter King grew to become an legal professional and targeted on shepherding his father’s legacy and defending the King household’s mental property. Along with serving as chairman of the King Heart, he was additionally president of the King property.
Along with his work with the King Heart, Dexter King was recognized for the hanging resemblance he bore to his father. They regarded a lot alike that the son ended up portraying his well-known father in a 2002 TV film about Parks.
Coretta Scott King died in 2006, adopted by the Kings’ oldest youngster, Yolanda King, in 2007.
“Phrases can’t specific the guts break I really feel from dropping one other sibling,” the Rev. Bernice A. King, the youngest of the 4, stated in an announcement.
His older brother, Martin Luther King III, stated: “The sudden shock is devastating. It’s onerous to have the precise phrases at a second like this. We ask in your prayers presently for your entire King household.”
