King family feud threatens book deal

A $1.4 million contract for the autobiography of the late Coretta Scott King is unraveling this week, an early casualty in the intensifying legal battle between her three living children.

According to the book deal, signed in May and included in a Fulton County court file, Penguin Group agreed to pay $1.2 million plus royalties to the company that controls rights to the work of Mrs. King’s husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Another $200,000 would go to the Rev. Barbara Reynolds, a journalist-turned-minister who taped conversations with Mrs. King before her death in January 2006.

But the New York-based publisher gave notice Monday of its intent to terminate the contract and demand repayment of a $300,000 advance if it doesn’t receive promised photos, personal writings and intimate letters within seven business days.

That’s where the family feud comes in.

Dexter King, who lives in Malibu, Calif., is president and CEO of King Inc., the company that controls the intellectual property from his father’s works. And he signed the book contract. His estranged sister, the Rev. Bernice King, administers their mother’s estate. And she doesn’t want the photos and papers going to Reynolds or Penguin.

Bernice and brother Martin Luther King III maintain that their mother had soured on the idea of Reynolds helping with her memoirs, said Jock Smith, an attorney representing the siblings. “She didn’t like her writing style,” Smith said. “Mrs. King didn’t like the way it was being handled.” So in a petition filed in Fulton Probate Court last week, the siblings asked a judge to declare that their mother’s personal photos, letters and memorabilia be distributed among heirs as directed in her will, not handed over for the autobiography.

Bernice and Martin III believe their brother, Dexter King, went behind their backs to sign the contract with Penguin, Smith said. Though Dexter heads King Inc., his brother and sister are shareholders. King Inc. would be responsible for returning the $300,000 advance.

Karen Mayer, general counsel at Penguin Group, declined to comment Thursday. But Craig Frankel, an attorney for Dexter King, said he finds it hard to believe that Mrs. King wouldn’t have addressed the issue before her death.

Reynolds was going to write a biography, authorized or not, so the book deal makes sense, Frankel said.

Attorney L. Lin Wood, who represents King Inc., said Mrs. King’s papers clearly belong to the corporation under a wide-ranging agreement signed by her and all the King children in 1995. The book contract, which is marked “Confidential,” should not have been filed as a public record, Wood said. Bernice and Martin III are trying the case in the court of public opinion, he said, in an attempt to “advance their own personal interests to the great damage of the corporation and the legacy of Dr. King.”

The flap adds another chapter to the increasingly public struggle for control of not only the slain civil rights leader’s legacy but also the money it generates. In July, Bernice and Martin III filed suit against Dexter in Fulton Superior Court, accusing their brother of taking money from their mother’s estate for his own benefit. They demanded Dexter to open the books on King Inc., which sold more than 10,000 of his personal papers in 2006 for $32 million.

The publishing contract, said Smith, attorney for Bernice and Martin III, is another example of the problem. Dexter hasn’t held a board meeting of any kind, let alone one to discuss a book contract, Smith said. Bernice and Martin III “have been kept out of the loop for several years,” Smith said. “He’s been the alpha and the omega. We’re going to put an end to that.”

Dexter has produced receipts he says show that he dispensed the money from his mother’s account evenly among the siblings. He said the lawsuit makes it sound like he padded his bank account instead. And Thursday, Frankel said his client is authorized to negotiate book deals for King Inc. without holding a board meeting.

Dexter filed a counterclaim in August, accusing his siblings of establishing foundations that compete with the King Center for Nonviolent Change and using the center for personal gain. Dexter also ordered Bernice to stop shopping around their mother’s letters, photographs and memorabilia because it violated the existing book contract.

Reynolds, designated as the writer in the contract, did not return messages left at Howard University’s School of Divinity, where she is a lecturer. She was to put together the book, tentatively titled “The Autobiography of Coretta Scott King,” using taped conversations and, according to the contract, “excerpts from Mrs. King’s intimate letters, including letters that reveal not widely known details of her life and relationships.”

A hearing has not been scheduled in response to Bernice’s petition for a ruling on the book deal. In last week’s filing, Bernice said she had been investigating a separate possibility: a book of photographs to honor her mother.

Any book money would go to all three children, whether through King Inc. or their mother’s estate. But both sides agree this battle is about control. And right now, no one clearly has it.