King siblings: family court fight was necessary

Rev. Bernice King, talks at a interview discussing the lawsuit between the King siblings in Atlanta Saturday Oct. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/W.A. Harewood)

The Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III haven't spoken to their brother in months, and their painful family feud has kept Dexter King from meeting his only niece, his two remaining siblings said Saturday.

The middle children of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King told The Associated Press that the ongoing fight may seem at odds with their parents' peacemaking example. But they maintain their decision to face their brother in court, though difficult, is in keeping with what they were taught.

"No one wants to be at this place," Martin Luther King III said, adding that negotiation and direct action are part of the nonviolent strategy espoused by his parents. "Certainly, Bernice and I would not want to be here, but we didn't have a choice. We were not able to get a resolution to the conflict we are engaged in. My father also used the court system."

"This was a very agonizing decision for us because we are family," Bernice King added.

The three surviving King children have looked more like adversaries than siblings in recent months as they struggle to settle three lawsuits. On Tuesday, lawyers for Dexter King asked a judge to demand that Bernice King -- as administrator of her mother's estate -- turn over personal papers, including love letters between the civil rights icons.

The case is ongoing in Atlanta civil court, and the judge has appointed a special master to catalogue dozens of boxes belonging to Coretta Scott King.

Control of the documents is threatening to derail a $1.4 million book deal with New York publisher Penguin Group for a memoir about the civil rights matriarch. Bernice and Martin Luther King III both say that the book goes against their mother's wishes. And they say it exemplifies how her brother has effectively shut out them out of the corporation that controls their father's legacy.

"It's almost like a dictatorship," Martin Luther King III said. "That's how it felt to us."

Craig Frankel, one of the attorneys representing Dexter as CEO of King Inc., did not immediately return a phone message Saturday evening. But Dexter King said Tuesday that he was not an instigator in the feud, which he called "a power struggle between siblings" that did not honor the spirit of his parents. However, he did express hope that the conflict could be resolved.

"Healing takes time. We do love each other," Dexter King said. "We were raised in a loving family. I think that will prevail."

He and his sister acknowledged that their rift with Dexter King has developed over several years. In the past, when they disagreed, they respectfully deferred to their mother. Coretta Scott King's death in 2006 -- and the sudden death of their sister, Yolanda, in 2007 -- failed to bring Dexter King closer to his siblings. Instead, they have become increasingly estranged.

Yet all three maintain hope for reconciliation.

( The Associated Press)

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Ebenezer Church Sermon Focuses on Obama, MLK (Photo Essay)

Ebenezer Baptist Church Sr. Pastor, Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, making a point to the audience on Sunday, January 18, on the eve of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day, and Tuesday's inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)


Worshipers link arms, singing "We Shall Overcome," at Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta, on Sunday, January 18, on the eve of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day, and Tuesday's inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Several thousand worshippers filled the historic Ebenezer Church in downtown Atlanta.

Adults at prayer, children and infants attended Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday, Jan., 18, 2009, on the eve of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day, and Tuesday's inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)

They came to hear an impassioned sermon on the eve of Martin Luther King Day, and Tuesday’s inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

A television news cameraman watches Rev. Warnock through his viewscreen at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., on Sunday, January 18, 2009. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)


Earnest Adams of Atlanta, in rapt prayer during services at Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Senior Pastor Raphael Warnock, told some 2,000 churchgoers that many historic figures made Obama’s election possible.

Ebenezer Baptist Church Sr. Pastor, Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, exhorting the audience on Sunday, January 18, on the eve of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day, and Tuesday's inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Warnock's examples ranged from the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt to the Land of Israel, African-America slaves, slain civil rights workers and King himself:

”…HE SITS ON THE KNEES AND STANDS ON THE SHOULDERS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., WHO SAID, ‘I MAY NOT GET THERE WITH YOU, BUT WE AS A PEOPLE WILL GET TO THE PROMISED LAND,’ SO KEEP ON MOVING – FREEDOM LOOMS!”

Warnock said the Obama inauguration was but another step on the road to freedom, and urged the audience to have faith in the face of domestic and international adversity.

A woman in rapt prayer during services at Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)

King would have been 80-years-old today.


Pastors and choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday, January 18, on the eve of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day, and Tuesday's inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. Click on the photo for a full-sized image. (Photo: Dave Bender)

GPB Radio News will air a segment of Pastor Warnock's sermon on Monday.

Commission Calls for MLK Statue's Redesign

Lei Yixin shows off a model of a Martin Luther King Jr. statue at his studio in Hunan province, China, last year. (AFP/Getty Images)

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial is going to be big. The site for it is a four-acre plot on the Tidal Basin, not far from the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Water, stone and trees are the primary elements in a design inspired by a line in the Rev. King's "I Have A Dream" speech:

"With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."

In the original design for the MLK memorial, a bust of King emerges almost organically out of the side of the Stone of Hope. To get to the stone, a visitor would walk through two rocks symbolizing the Mountain of Despair. That design won the competition set up by the U.S. Fine Arts Commission, the federal agency that approves anything that gets built on the National Mall.

But in the new model for the statue, King is much bigger. His arms are crossed defiantly and he has a solemn look on his face.

In a letter calling for revisions to the statue, Thomas Luebke, who heads the commission, said King's character had gone from "meditative" to "confrontational."

"It looks more like the Stone of Hope is just background. There's now a more full body sculpture of Dr. King. It's a much more rigid, symmetrical stance," Luebke said.

The architects of the memorial are considering what modifications they'll make to meet the commission's request. But Harry Johnson, president of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Foundation, likes the idea of King standing tall.

He says he agrees King's facial expression needs softening, but he wants the statue to be an expression of strength.

"The bottom line is, do you want an African-American man not standing tall?" Johnson says. "The Dr. King we want to see is a warrior of peace, not a warrior of wars."

The new design for the statue was carved by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin. And any controversy about his work is fodder for the people who opposed the decision to hire him in the first place. The MLK National Memorial Foundation was criticized for not hiring an American artist. Lei has carved many Chinese officials over the years, including Communist leader Mao Zedong.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about Martin Luther King.

(National Public Radio)

King children's infighting now in court

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children are in a legal squabble. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III filed a lawsuit Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court against their brother Dexter King. The lawsuit says that Dexter King - the administrator of his father's estate - refused to provide information and documents concerning the operations. It also claims that Martin Luther King Jr.'s estate's assets "are being misapplied or wasted."

Fall Class On King Papers

A leading scholar of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will teach a class on the civil rights icon this fall at Morehouse College, using the collection of documents, books and other items housed at the school. Clayborne Carson, who was named executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Collection in January, will teach "Martin Luther King Jr. and the Modern Freedom Struggle." Carson was tapped by King's widow, Coretta Scott King, to edit and publish his papers in 1985. King graduated from Morehouse with a degree in sociology in 1948. The collection was bought on June 23, 2006, in a, 11th-hour, $32 million private sale brokered by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin that thwarted a public auction to be held at Sotheby's in New York.

(Associated Press)

Eldest child of Martin Luther King-Jr dies

The oldest child and daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King-Jr has died. A spokesman for The King Center in Atlanta said Yolanda Denise King passed away last night in Santa Monica-California at 51 years old. The cause of death is not known, but the family believes it might have been from a heart problem.

Yolanda King was born in 1955 in Montgomery-Alabama. She was an author, and followed her father as a speaker and advocate for peace and nonviolence. She held membership in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, co-founded by her father in 1957. During King Day ceremonies honoring her father in January, she spoke strongly of Dr. King's life and legacy.

King was also an actress who appeared in several films, and started a production company.

Yolanda Denise King is survived by her sister, 2 brothers, and extended family. Her death comes more than a year after that of her mother, Coretta Scott King.

CSU commemorates King legacy

Richardson emphasizing a point in his address to faculty and students at CSU, on the anniversary of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Columbus State University celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s today, at a ceremony held on the anniversary of his birth.

Benjamin Richardson, Muscogee County's Solicitor-General and guest speaker, says much of King's legacy has been accomplished:

“I think a lot of Dr. King's legacy has been fulfilled, in terms of opportunities that weren't there before. For instance, my position: I am the first African-American Solicitor-General in Muscogee County. I know without Dr. King and others, that wouldn't have been possible.”

Students and faculty, seen here, repeatedly applauded during Richardson's address. (Photo: Dave Bender)

But Richardson, speaking to a roomful of over 100 students and faculty, says they risk squandering the civil-rights leader's legacy out of apathy and indifference:

“However, those rights and opportunities were not given without much struggle. Dr. King and others fought – and sometimes died – in the civil-rights movement to provide us so many opportunities for us today. But it seems we take those hard-fought rights and opportunities for granted. Unfortunately, we allow those same rights and opportunities to go by the wayside...”

Richardson especially called on the students not to waste their right to vote in coming the elections, and to stay in school.

Click here for more GPB News reports about Dr. King and his family.

MLK lieutenant, SCLC leader dies

One of the lieutenants of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement has died.

The Rev. James E. Orange of Birmingham, Ala., died on Saturday at Crawford Long Hospital. He was 65.

Orange marched in his hometown in 1963 alongside King and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, to help integrate facilities and transportation. He lived in southwest Atlanta for more than four decades.

As project coordinator with the SCLC from 1965 to 1970, Orange later became a regional coordinator with AFL-CIO in Atlanta, where he incorporated King's nonviolence philosophy and promoted unity between national labor leaders and King's "beloved community." He retired in 2005.

Since 1995, Orange served as the general coordinator of the Martin Luther King Jr. March Committee-Africa/African-American Renaissance Committee. The organization coordinates the country's most watched and heavily attended events of the King national holiday and led in the efforts to promote industry and general commerce between Atlanta and the U.S. with South Africa.

Orange is survived by his wife, Cleo; five children; two grandchildren; and a host of relatives and friends in Atlanta and Alabama.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced next week.

(The Associated Press)

Exhibit Opening at the King National Historic Site

The dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been interpreted by 70 artists in an exhibit opening at the King National Historic Site. The "I Have A Dream: International Exhibition to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." opens today at the site, which includes King's birth home and tomb. The various tributes to the civil rights icon include depictions of struggle and activism, as well as works that address gender and race.
The exhibit was organized by city of Sitges, Spain and features artists from every continent. It arrives in King's birthplace after stops in New York, Michigan and Tennessee and will continue to Alabama and Illinois before returning to Spain next year.

(AP)

King Family Gets Paid for DC Memorial Project

The foundation building a monument to honor Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. at the National Mall in Washington D.C. is paying about $800 thousand to the King family for using the civil rights leaders’ words and image.

It’s an arrangement one leading scholar says King would have found offensive.

The memorial includes a 28 foot sculpture depicting King emerging from a chunk of granite. It’s funded almost entirely with private money raised by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. The monument will be turned over to the National Park Service once it’s complete.

(Associated Press)

Georgia granite suppliers dismayed: King memorial to contain Chinese stone

Construction of the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington D.C. is underway, and Georgia granite leaders say they should be providing more of the stone. They criticize the plan to use stone from China and are demanding equal bidding rights to supply the granite.

The memorial plaza set to open this year is located where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, between the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorial in the National Mall. The plaza will feature a large sculpture of King by a Chinese artist.

Spokesperson for the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Foundation said at least 85 percent of the overall stone content will come from U.S. quarries.

Movie About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

DreamWorks Studios has plans to make a movie about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to be co-produced by Steven Spielberg. The studio announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the civil rights leader's life rights from The King Estate. Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones are also mentioned as producers of the project in the release. The studio says the film would be the first theatrical motion picture authorized by the estate using King's intellectual property as the basis for the story.

(Associated Press)

Controversial minister to speak at '09 King memorial

The Rev. Rick Warren, whose selection to deliver the invocation at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration next month has drawn controversy, will be in the pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church to deliver the keynote address at the Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative service. The January 19, 2009 service on the federal holiday will mark what would have been King's 80th birthday. It will cap a week of activities to salute the civil rights icon, according to a schedule of events listed on the Web site for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Warren is pastor of the 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Southern California and author of the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life." Obama's decision to include Warren in the inauguration has sparked an outcry from liberal groups and gay rights activists over the Southern Baptist's views on same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

(Associated Press)

Clayborne Carson to Lead Morehouse's MLK Collection

Morehouse College has named civil rights historian and author Clayborne Carson head of its Martin Luther King Jr. collection. Carson has written and edited numerous works on the civil rights movement, among them The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. He also served as senior advisor for the award winning public televison series "Eyes on the Prize." Carson will be speaking at Morehouse College's International Chapel on Tuesday, January 13th at 10:30 a.m. about his plans for the King collection as its Executive Director.

Yolanda King memorialized in Atlanta

A memorial service was held in Atlanta today for Yolanda King - the oldest child of Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr.

Yolanda King died earlier this month at the age of 51.

Nearly two-thousand mourners filed past trees bearing yellow ribbons, to remember King at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Ebenezer is the same church where decades earlier Dr. King was a young pastor.

Among those paying tribute to King was legendary actress and civil rights activist, Cecily Tyson, the Reverand Al Sharpton and Atayallah Shabbaz, the daughter of slain civil rights leader, Malcolm X.

King tried to move from under the mantle of responsibility the King family name brought with it. She studied acting at NYU and found success as an actress, although she found it hard to break into roles that did not cast her in the role of the suffering martyr.

The cause of King's death has not yet been determined. Family members say she suffered from heart disease and hypertension. Autopsy results are pending.

Protesters Shout at Warren During Ebenezer Sermon

Two women protesters shouted at Rev. Rick Warren shortly after he began his keynote sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in downtown Atlanta Monday.

One of the women, seen here pointing in the air, waved a yellow scarf, as she shouted, "Rick Warren is a bigot, Rick Warren is a bigot," at Ebenezer Baptist Church during the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Security officials tore the scarf from the woman's hand during the altercation, which took place shortly before 1:00 PM and quickly hustled both out of the sanctuary.

A few moments later, two male protesters stood up and turned their backs to Warren, and were also escorted out of the building.

The identity of the protesters was unclear, although several dozen demonstrators with signs held a protest outside the church earlier against what they said was Warren's positions on gay rights and abortion.

The group was larger earlier in the morning, but dispersed, according to reports.

Security personnel hurry one of the women out of the sanctuary at Ebenezer Baptist Church during the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Police and Sheriff Department details, and FBI and Homeland Security personnel showed a heavy presence in the vicinity of the church, and closed off streets surrounding the building.

Dozens of dignitaries attended the service, including Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, who gave a brief address.

Obama Calls For Unity at Atlanta Church

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks during the Sunday morning church service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Barack Obama on Sunday called for unity to overcome the country's problems as he acknowledged that "none of our hands are clean" when it comes to healing divisions.

Heading into the most racially diverse contest yet in the presidential campaign, Obama took to the pulpit at Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church on the eve of the federal holiday celebrating the civil rights hero's birth 79 years ago. His speech was based on King's quote that "Unity is the great need of the hour."

"The divisions, the stereotypes, the scape-goating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others, all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face: war and poverty; inequality and injustice," Obama said. "We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late."

Obama has called for a new kind of politics that he says should appeal to people's hopes, not their fears.

South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary Saturday, is the first state where a large number of black voters will participate, and Obama needs a win to remain a front-runner in the race for the party's presidential nomination.

He is counting on blacks to stick with him despite losing to Hillary Rodham Clinton in two consecutive contests. He lost Nevada despite winning 83 percent of blacks, who made up 15 percent of the total vote. In South Carolina, they are expected to make up at least half the turnout.

Obama's campaign has worked to overcome a concern among black voters that he wouldn't be able to win an election in white America. After his victory in practically all-white Iowa, his poll numbers leaped among blacks.

"I understand that many of you are still a little skeptical," Obama said Friday night at a King banquet in Las Vegas. "But not as skeptical as you were before Iowa. Sometimes it takes other folks before we believe ourselves."

At Ebenezer, where King launched the civil rights movement, Obama spoke in front of a tightly packed crowd; hundreds more who had lined up outside in subfreezing temperatures couldn't get in. It was unclear whether the crowd was for Obama, the King holiday or caused by the unusual blast of ice and snow that closed other area churches.

"We had to fight, bleed and die just to be able to vote," the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock said in introducing Obama. "Now we can select presidents, and now with credibility and intelligence and power, we can run for president."

He teased worshippers who cheered at the sight of the most viable black presidential candidate in history. "I understand, but don't get it twisted," Warnock said.

Obama said blacks often have been the victims of injustice, but he said they also have perpetrated divisions with gays, Jews and immigrants.

"If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community," he said to applause.

Obama suggested he's allowed divisions to creep into his campaign in recent days. "Last week, it crept into the campaign for president, with charges and countercharges that served to obscure the issues instead of illuminating the critical choices we face as a nation.
“None of our hands are clean," he said.

Obama's and Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns engaged in several days of back and forth after Clinton's comments about King that some interpreted as minimizing his role in the passage of landmark civil rights legislation. The two candidates called a truce on that issue last week.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the presidential primaries.

Israel honors Coretta Scott King

Israel will name a forest in northern Galilee after Coretta Scott King. The Coretta Scott King Forest will comprise at least 10,000 trees and be a living memorial to King's legacy of peace and justice. King, who died last year, is the widow of the late civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. Two members of the Congressional Black Caucus said the initiative would strengthen ties between blacks and Jews dating back to the early Civil Rights Movement.

Battle over King papers in court

The children of Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. are facing off in an Atlanta courtroom today, at odds over their mother's personal papers that could factor into a lucrative book deal. Dexter King is seeking his mother's papers, which are currently in his sister's possession. Bernice King is refusing to turn over the papers, claiming her mother did not want to participate in the $1.4 million book deal. New York-based Penguin Group is threatening to pull the deal this week without the documents.

(Associated Press)

King's Unpublished Novels Forthcoming

Four books written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. will be published for the first time in 20 years under a new deal with Beacon Press brokered by King's youngest son. Dexter King called the deal a historic partnership that will bring his father's words to a global audience. Beacon, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association, publishes books on social justice, human rights and racial equality. The Boston-based publisher will release new editions of "Stride Toward Freedom," "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?," "Trumpet of Conscience" and "Strength to Love" in 2010. Under the exclusive agreement, Beacon will also compile King's writings, sermons, lectures and prayers into new editions to include introductions by leading scholars.

(Associated Press)