Dexter Scott King said he was "shocked" by a recent lawsuit filed by his siblings accusing him of mismanaging money in one family account and taking money for personal use out of another.

"It totally blindsided me. I think maybe it was a reckless attempt to express their grievances. They are false claims and I will be addressing that accordingly," King, the youngest son of Martin Luther King Jr., said from his Malibu home. "We are a private family. It is a private business matter."

But just how private are these matters when you're the child of a noted civil rights leader?

Juanita Abernathy winced when she read that the King children were suing each other over money.

"It tugs at the heartstrings, because I know that their parents would not want this," said Abernathy, wife of the late Ralph David Abernathy, King's closest confidant. "They taught their children to get along."

On Thursday, Bernice and Martin Luther King III filed the lawsuit accusing Dexter of mishandling funds from King Inc., hiding documents from them, and taking money from the estate of their late mother, Coretta Scott King.

At stake are millions of dollars in assets linked to King's intellectual property rights, including the $32 million that donors in Atlanta recently paid to acquire 10,000 pages of his papers.

"If it were any other family going through any other probate struggle, it wouldn't be in the front page of the newspaper," said Michael Julian Bond, a former Atlanta councilman. "Everything you do, moments that you would love to share —- like the birth of [King III's] baby, to the pain of this lawsuit —- is subject to ... broadcast everywhere."

Atlanta became a black mecca when, under King's leadership, much of the strategy of the civil rights movement was planned here.

Several leaders —- King, Abernathy, Andrew Young, Joseph Lowery, Julian Bond, and Hosea Williams —- stayed and raised families.

Their kids have been in the spotlight since birth.

"It is a double-edged sword," said Ralph David Abernathy III. "Everything you say and do is watched. The expectations that people have of you are much greater than the average individual."

Bond, whose father Julian Bond was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and is the current chairman of the NAACP, said it's "as if you are not allowed to have any privacy or a real childhood."

The Kings "had it much worse than my brothers and sisters," he said. "My name was 'Michael Bond, Julian Bond's son.' That is even how my closest friends introduced me. I was always attached to my father. It didn't matter what I did or where I went —- playing soccer in high school or trying to date girls —- it was ever present."

Juanita Abernathy said the children are susceptible to certain vulnerabilities.

"There are vultures out there that will prey on your children," she said. "If you sneeze loud enough, somebody will write about it."

Her son knows the dangers of an ill-placed sneeze. Aside from the Kings, no child of an Atlanta civil rights leader has gotten more press.

In 2000, Ralph Abernathy III was sentenced to four years in prison for theft by taking, forgery, influencing a witness and violation of oath of a public officer. The former state senator was released in 2003.

He said it is inevitable that a child of an icon would go through life worrying about fulfilling a legacy.

"You would not be human if it didn't cross your mind," he said. "But my father used to tell me, every tub must sit on its own bottom. Everybody is accountable for their own life."

Juanita Abernathy said she is confident that the Kings will settle their dispute quietly.

"I taught my children that you may fight behind closed doors, but come out together, because you are the same blood," she said. "... I know Martin and Coretta taught their children that."

That may be wishful thinking. Dexter King said one of the reasons he was stunned by the lawsuit is that his siblings didn't call him.

"I left them a message to call me so we could talk, and they have not returned the call," he said. "I just . . . I don't understand it."

ERNIE SUGGS in Atlanta; BOB KEEFE in Malibu, Calif.