b'February 2024DEXTER KING DIED BELIEVING THAT THE TRUTH OF HIS FATHERS KILLING WILL SOMEDAY RISEDexter used to love talking about one day becoming a businessman and he started his first enterprise, a music company where he hired himself out as a disk jockey for weddings. In later years, his zest for business skills took root at the King Center, where he sometimes took the reins of the King Center with his siblings helping it to become a Beloved world house of peace and non-violence.Coretta King said all four siblingsMartin III, Yolanda, Dexter, and Bernice had inherited specific qualities from her and their father. Yolanda had a love for the performing arts and became an actress. Martin III, a social justice activist; Bernice, a Call to ministry and pastoral and organizational leadership; and Dexter, a drive to master the complexities of life by pushing forward,overcomingthemostdifficultproblems, By Dr. Barbara Reynolds evenwhenattheveryroothehadtoovercome (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Not another King dying far toohimself.soon. This was the immediate reaction of many at theConfrontedwiththefearofdeath,insteadof news that Dexter Scott King, the youngest son of Dr.running from it, he freed himself by running into it. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King had diedAt age 16, he started working at a funeral home, the fromprostatecanceratage62.In2007hissistersameonethatburiedhisfather.Theexperiences Yolanda died at age 52.in the mortuary he attributed to his quest to come to terms with death and dying. To understand the Atthetimeofhisdeath,Dexterhadservedasbothintricacies of the criminal justice system, in 1982, for chairman of The King Center and President of the Kinga short spell, he became a police officer in Atlanta. His Estate. In that capacity he engaged in legal intellectualstance to wear a uniform with a sidearm shocked the propertyfightswithcorporations,federalagencies,principled non-violent, anti-gun workers at the King andcourtsuitswithfamilymemberstoprotecthisCenter.Buthewasdeterminedtounderstandthe parents legacy. His strongest crusade, however, wassystem from the inside out.his battle to bring to justice those responsible for his fathers murder. Dexter also wanted to test his acting abilities. With his uncanny resemblance to his father, he portrayed him Born in Atlanta on Jan. 30, 1961, he was named afterin the 2002 television movie The Rosa Parks Story. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama,His love for the creative arts drew him to relocate wherehisfatherservedinhisfirstpastorateandtoCaliforniabuthealsocontinuedhisworkwith helped launch the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott. Hethe King Center and commitment to the King family was the second-born son of Dr. King and Mrs. King andlegacy,was only 7 years old when his father was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.As deftly as he helped free himself from fear and tradition,healsotookresponsibilityforfreeing For years, Dexter Kingwho has an amazing resemblancehisfamily,especiallyhismother,fromdigging to his globally acclaimed father, confessed that whentheirgraveswiththeirforks.Hebecameastrict he looked in the mirror he saw his fathers face trappedvegetarian, giving up sugars and starches until his in mine. In his memoir Growing Up King, he spoke ofbody craved natural foods. He said he was bothered gazing upon the writing on his fathers crypt, Free Atthathisgrandfather,DaddyKing,mighthavelived Last, and feeling that same sense of freedom. Yet healongerlifehadheeatendifferently.Athersons was freed in a different way- not in death - but in theinsistence,Coretta,whohadmasteredtheartof resolution of living his best life on his own terms andrichSouthernstylecooking,becamea vegetarian. not becoming a prisoner of the King name. Once when I traveled with her to a Florida spa, I was dismayed that for a week, they served nothing but As a journalist and later biographer of Coretta Scottraw vegetables and veggie smoothies. Yet, she also King, I was in and out of the King household since thebelieved her strict regimen eased her pain from gout seventies watching their becoming years. As a teenager Continued on Page 14Follow us on8'