Dexter Scott King, the son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, has died at 62.
He died at home in California on Monday after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, the King Centre said.
Dexter King, the third child of Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King, was seven when his father was assassinated.
“He turned that pain into activism, however, and dedicated his life to advancing the dream Martin and Coretta Scott King had for their children”, the Reverend Al Sharpton said in a statement.
He said Dexter King “left us far too soon”.
Dexter King described the impact his father’s killing had on him in his 2004 memoir, Growing Up King.
“Ever since I was seven, I’ve felt I must be formal,” he 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 was the lookalike of his father and was cast to play him in a 2002 TV movie about Rosa Parks.
Coretta Scott King died in 2006, followed by the Kings’ oldest child, Yolanda Denise King, in 2007.
“Words cannot express the heart break I feel from losing another sibling,” his sister Bernice King said in a statement.
Dexter Scott, aged 2, sitting on the knee of his mother Coretta Scott King, with his father Dr Martin Luther King Jr and two of his three siblings Martin Luther King III (left) and Yolanda (right) at their home in 1963. Pic: AP
Dexter King’s 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.”
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Dexter King worked to protect the King family’s intellectual property. In addition to serving as chairman of the King Centre, he was also president of the King estate.
In 1997, Dexter King visited James Earl Ray, the man imprisoned for shooting his father in Memphis, Tennessee.
Ray told him he did not kill his father and Dexter King said he believed Ray.
Martin Luther King Jr made his ‘I have a dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963
Ray pleaded guilty to murder in 1969 but the King family pushed for a trial in the late 90s, hoping the case would reveal evidence of a broader conspiracy.
However Ray never stood trial; he died from liver failure in 1998.
A memorial service for Dexter King will be announced later, the King Centre said.
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