Money squabbles unworthy of Kings

I am truly saddened by the events surrounding the King children’s dispute over their parents’ estates.

In fact, deserved or not, the ugly stench of that dread social ailment, greed, appears to hover over this controversy.

OK, some of us can attest to money being too often the root cause of many family feuds.

But a public uproar by the children of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King is especially distasteful.

And those who would scoff at any criticism of these offspring, when they themselves may have a financial stake in the outcome, are to be ignored and watched very closely.

I knew Martin Luther King Jr. and the entire King family. I became acquainted with the Kings as a young upstart reporter who was lucky enough to have covered and witnessed the latter half of the civil rights movement.

Dr. King, after getting to know me, gave me his home phone number, because he knew that I was an ace reporter — nah, that’s what I wanted to be, but far from it.

The truth is that Dr. King understood that when he talked to me he was speaking to most of Atlanta, as I worked for WAOK,

a radio station considered to be the trusted messenger to the people.

The Kings were always nice to me. Dr. King never excluded me from any of his events.

Coretta King once invited me, not as a reporter, to her home for a luncheon with some international dignitaries.

I sat, ate, listened and said nothing; I suppose I was in awe of my surroundings. But, I wish today that I had Mrs. King’s chili recipe. It was, as the kid’s say, “to die for.”

I will never forget the day Mrs. King showed me the Nobel Peace Prize and allowed me to hold it; it was an emotional moment for me.

And she later granted me the first in-depth television interview following her husband’s death.

I still know the King children. Bernice, Bunny as she was affectionately called, did not know me as did her siblings. She was too young and I doubt today if she has any clear memory of me.

I have no idea, as some claim they know, how the Kings would react to their children’s actions over their memorabilia.

I do know that the Martin Luther King Jr. I knew was about uplifting the lives and spirits of all people, especially the least among us.

I know he was diligent in his efforts to win freedom, justice and respect for black America.

His — and the determination of many others to those ends — was rewarded on the steps of the U.S. Capitol last January when Barack Obama was sworn in as president.

Dr. King could have on any number of occasions abandoned his dangerous quest for freedom for his people and just picked up his bag of gold, but he, unlike some others, would not betray his commitment to his people for greed.

This public display of discontent among the King children has put a bad taste in the mouth of those of us who revered their father and mother. That is why the sting of this dispute is so hurtful to many people.

So it is time to just stop it! Trust me children, few have sympathy for you.

Rev. King you were very young when your father died and you may not have had the time to bond with him as did your older sister, Yolanda, and brothers, Martin and Dexter.

But you should have by now bonded spiritually with him, well enough not to speak of him in the abstract, as I have so often heard you do by referring to him as Martin Luther King instead of “My father or Dad.”

But I will leave that with you, I am only saying out loud what others may whisper.

No one should misunderstand me: I am not talking about a stain on your father’s legacy, or mother’s. It is about you and your brothers’ footprints that concern me.

Martin Luther King’s worth and works are burned deep in the hearts of all those who knew and loved him, and the great revelation of truth and history will totally and absolutely endorse his greatness.

The question now is: How do you want history to record and report your life’s worth and work?

Good luck.

Emmanuel Hall, a writer and former television news anchor, lives in Atlanta.