Sometimes it is hard to imagine the sons and daughters of Coretta and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as real people.
But standing in an auditorium named for her sister, in a building named after her father and built by her mother, an emotional Bernice King stepped back to simpler times to talk about her brother, Dexter Scott King.
“Growing up, I remember spending time in the evenings when I was 9 or 10, or maybe 11, and both he and Martin [Martin Luther King III] wanted me to plait [braid] their hair, because they thought it would continue to make it grow.”
Bernice King paused, almost lost in thought before she continued.
“We had a good time,” she said.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Dexter Scott King, the 62-year-old youngest son of the Kings and the caretaker of the family’s legacy, as CEO of the King Estate, died Monday in California after a three-year battle with prostate cancer. Bernice King said plans are being made for a memorial service in Atlanta, but added that his body was also cremated on Monday, “by his wishes.”
Less than 24 hours after the news of Dexter Scott King’s passing, Bernice King said the family has been flooded with messages from all over the world, from everyday people to heads of state.
“Dexter Scott King committed his life to carrying forward his father’s work – paving the path to the Beloved Community, a sacred place where justice and righteousness abound,” said President Joe Biden. “Jill and I pray for his wife Leah, the Kings, and all those who knew, loved, and were inspired by Dexter.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock, who attended King’s alma mater Morehouse College and now pastors his church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, prayed with the King family on Monday for “peace that surpasses human understanding.”
“As a voice for Georgians in the Senate and the pastor of the King family’s spiritual home, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Dexter King,” Warnock said. “I join the citizens of our state, nation, and the global Beloved Community in extending my deepest condolences, strength, and solidarity to them during this time of remembrance and grief.”
Eric Tidwell, general counsel of the King estate, will assume day-to-day operations of the organization charged with protecting Martin Luther King Jr.’s intellectual property. Bernice King, CEO of the nonprofit King Center, said the family will soon announce who will take over as the organization’s board chairman, her brother’s former position.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
But at a morning press conference the usually stoic Bernice King never wanted to have, none of that was important. On several occasions, she melted into tears.
Standing with her cousins Alveda King and Angela Farris Watkins, she opened the press conference by calling it “the hardest thing for me to do.”
“My big, baby brother passed away in his sleep after a 3-1/2-year battle with prostate cancer,” Bernice King said. “He tried, with everything in him, to defeat it. He fought to the very last minute.”
Through tears, she thanked Dexter King’s wife, Leah Weber King, whom she called “sister-in-love,” for her “perseverance, love and sacrifice, care, and jovial nature through it all. She stayed by his side during the entire journey.”
Martin Luther King III did not attend the press conference, as he was traveling outside of the country, Bernice King said.
For years, Dexter King served as the face of the King family.
He was the longtime chairman of the King Center, an institution established in 1968 by his mother, Coretta Scott King, to advance the vision of her husband. He was also CEO of the King Estate, which managed the licensing of his father’s image and likeness.
Bernice King said that when her mother was thinking about slowing down in 1994, the family had a retreat to find a new leader among the children. Yolanda King, the oldest, was pursuing her acting career, while King III was entering politics and Bernice was in school.
Dexter, whose keen sense of business was evident with his early ventures into photography and then deejaying companies, became the obvious choice.
“We all looked to Dexter because we knew with his business sense, he would be the best person,” Bernice King said. “Dexter was before his time. Even I didn’t understand that. But I told him that he had the most strategic mind I had ever known.”
Both positions made him the somewhat-reluctant face of the King family, and put him in the middle of private and public clashes over the shape of the King legacy.
He actively went after corporations and media who used his father’s quotations or images without authorization. His biggest deal came in 2005 when he negotiated the $32 million sale of the King papers to the City of Atlanta.
But Dexter, Martin III and Bernice often found themselves at odds with each other, most notably in court, in a dispute over what to do with their father’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and a Bible he traveled with. The Bible was later used by President Barack Obama during his second inauguration.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
“Dexter and I always agreed in principle,” Bernice King said. “There were times we had struggles from a methodical standpoint, but none of that destroyed our love and respect for each other.
In his later years, while Bernice and King III emerged as public figures, Dexter purposely retreated into the background, becoming somewhat of a rarely seen recluse. Annual King Day events were always punctuated with people furtively asking, “Where is Dexter?”
In his 2003 autobiography, “Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir,” Dexter King wrote at the end: “Yet his surviving family continues to be attacked, for no reason except none of us, his children, turned out to be him. All of us together are him – the part that’s left on this earth.”
“He came under vicious attacks through the media and self-proclaimed scholars, who in their minds believed his intent was profit,” Bernice King said. “But Dexter had a prophetic vision and I am going to make sure that that vision comes to pass. Because our world needs it like never before.”
Over the last year of his life, Bernice King said she was able to spend meaningful and quality time with her brother, who had spent his time living between Atlanta and Malibu.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
On one of her last visits, she said her brother looked her in the eyes and told her he was proud of the work she was doing. Standing at the podium, Bernice paused. Through tears, she said she lost her train of thought, while her cousins rubbed her back.”
“He told me to keep this legacy going,” Bernice continued. “I am going to miss the conversations we had — the laughs, the reminiscing, the brilliance, the protection. He was a fierce protector. He was misunderstood but he loved his family.”
King was not with her brother when he passed, but Leah Weber King said he had a smile on his face when he died.
“I think that was our parents saying, ‘Welcome home son,’” Bernice King said. “He’s with mom and dad now.”
About the Author
