FILE - Dexter King, son of Martin Luther King Jr., speaks to the press outlining his family's plan for an interactive museum to be built at the MLK Center in Atlanta, Dec. 28, 1994. Dexter Scott King, the younger son of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, has died after battling prostate cancer. The King Center in Atlanta says the 62-year-old son of the civil rights leader died Monday, Jan. 22, 2024 at his California home after battling prostate cancer. (AP Photo/Leita Cowart, file)
ATLANTA (AP) – Dexter Scott King, the younger son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died Monday after battling prostate cancer.
The King Center in Atlanta, which Dexter King served as chairman, said the 62-year-old son of the civil rights icon died at his home in Malibu, California. His 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 first served as a pastor. He was just 7 years old when his father was assassinated in 1968.
As an adult, Dexter King became an attorney and focused on shepherding his father’s legacy and protecting the King family’s intellectual property. In addition to serving as chairman of the King Center, he was also president of the King estate.
Coretta Scott King died in 2006, followed by the Kings’ oldest child Yolanda King in 2007.
“Words cannot express the heart break I feel from losing another sibling,” the Rev. Bernice A. King, Dexter King’s youngest sibling, said in a statement.
His older brother, Martin Luther King III, said: “The sudden shock is devastating. It is hard to have the right words at a moment like this. We ask for your prayers at this time for the entire King family”.
