Dexter Scott King, son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, passes away at 62 battling prostate cancer
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, had served as chairman of the the King Centre in Atlanta.
Dexter Scott King's wife, Leah Weber King, said in a statement that he died “peacefully in his sleep." The third of the Kings' four children, Dexter King was named for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father served as a pastor when the Montgomery bus boycott launched him to national prominence in the wake of the 1955 arrest of Rosa Parks, reports AFP. Dexter King was just 7 years old when his father was assassinated in April 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Dexter King described the impact his father's killing had on his childhood, and the rest of his life, in a 2004 memoir, “Growing Up King." “Ever since I was seven, I’ve felt I must be formal," Dexter King wrote, adding, “Formality, seriousness, certitude — all these are difficult poses to maintain, even if you’re a person with perfect equilibrium, with all the drama life throws at you." As an adult, Dexter King bore a striking resemblance to his famous father that he was cast to portray him in a 2002 TV move about Parks starring Angela Bassett.
Dexter Scott King also worked to protect the King family’s intellectual property. In addition to serving as chairman of the King Center, he was also president of the King estate. Decades earlier, Dexter King made headlines when he publicly declared that he believed James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty in 1969 to murdering his father, was innocent.
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