Source: Moses Robinson / Getty
A week to the day since our nationwide annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day, we must now sadly report that the King family has experienced yet another loss with the death of Dexter Scott King.
The youngest son of the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and equally missed Coretta Scott King, Dexter succumbed on Monday to an extensive battle with prostate cancer. He was 62 years old.
ATLANTA (AP) — Dexter Scott King, youngest son of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, has died of cancer, King Center says. pic.twitter.com/6DF9vdRr66
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 22, 2024
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More reactions below from the surviving King Family members on the shocking death of Dexter Scott King, via NBC News:
“‘Words cannot express the heartbreak,’ said the Rev. Bernice King, the youngest of the King children. ‘I’m praying for strength to get through this very difficult time.’
‘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,’ Martin Luther King III, the King’s oldest surviving child, said in a statement.
Dexter King attended Morehouse College and later served as the chairman of the King Center, leading the efforts to protect his family’s legacy and intellectual property. He was also president of the King Estate.
‘He was the family member delegated to take on the mantle of continuing the precedent his father set by legally protecting his work,’ the King Center said in a statement. ‘He devoted his life to the continued perpetuation of his father’s legacy and the protection of the intellectual property his father left behind.’”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network, offered a moving tribute to Dexter King in a statement emailed to NewsOne.
“I was heartbroken to hear that Dexter King left us this morning, but I was comforted by the knowledge he is reunited with his parents and sister,” Sharpton wrote in part. “Dexter was only seven when his hero, his role model, and, most importantly, his father was taken from us. He turned that pain into activism, however, and dedicated his life to advancing the dream Martin and Coretta Scott King had for their children, their grandchildren, and all the generations to come after. My love and prayers are with my brother, Martin III, Arndrea, Yolanda, and Bernice. We mourn with them for the loss of their brother – our brother – who left us far too soon.”
In addition to activism work in the vain of his dad, Dexter was also an accomplished author with his 2003 memoir, Growing Up King. In addition, he also contributed to acting in the 1978 miniseries King, The Rosa Parks Story television movie from 2002 starring Angela Bassett and the 1999 animated educational film Our Friend, Martin amongst other projects. Without question, he will be greatly missed.
May his soul gain peace in the afterlife with both his dad and mom. Take a look below at some images of the late Dexter Scott King over the years.
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