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Dr. King’s Children Battling Over Book
By ROBBIE BROWN
Published: October 13, 2008
ATLANTA — The three living children of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have feuded before. This time the squabbling is over the legacy and estate not of their father but of their mother.
In the third King v. King legal dispute in four months, two of Dr. King’s children are refusing to provide a biographer of their mother, Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006, with a collection of her photographs, letters and personal papers. Their brother, Dexter King, chairman of their father’s estate, has asked a judge to force them to comply.
At stake is a $1.4 million book deal with the Penguin Group — as well as the reputation of one of America’s most famous families. Penguin said it intends to terminate the contract and demand the return of a $300,000 advance if the Kings do not turn over the papers to the biographer, Barbara Reynolds, by Friday.
The two children who oppose the book, the Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, say their mother did not want Ms. Reynolds to write the biography. Dexter King, who orchestrated the deal, said his siblings and mother signed control of their intellectual property over to their father’s estate.
A judge has ordered the Kings to appear in an Atlanta courtroom on Tuesday to resolve the dispute.
“It’s sad and pathetic to see the three of them behaving in this self-destructive way,” said David J. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Dr. King. “Unfortunately all of the children seem to regard their father’s legacy as first and foremost an income maximization opportunity for themselves.”
Lawyers for both sides drew similar conclusions, although of course they blamed different children.
“Bernice and Martin appear willing to tear down Dr. King’s legacy to build their own,” said L. Lin Wood, a lawyer for King Inc., the corporation that handles the rights to their father’s works. “They are engaged in what can fairly be described as self-destructive behavior. It’s a scorched-earth policy. And unfortunately they’ve tarnished the legacy of Dr. King.”
Jock Smith, the lawyer for Bernice and Martin King, said: “Martin Luther King’s whole philosophy was based on inclusion of all of God’s children. For Dexter to not allow Bernice and Martin to have equal rights within the very corporation that evangelizes their father is totally contrary to that philosophy.”
Ms. Reynolds, 66, a journalist, minister and longtime acquaintance of the King family, has said she may now abandon the book. “There’s an African proverb, ‘When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled,’ ” she said. “These are fights between siblings for control. I’m just a writer caught in the middle.”
A rally of back-and-forth lawsuits within the family began in July, when Bernice and Martin sued Dexter, alleging that he had mismanaged their father’s estate and illegally removed funds from their mother’s estate. He countersued, claiming that his siblings had improperly borrowed office space and company cars from the King Center, an Atlanta civil rights museum. He also accused Bernice of corrupting their father’s legacy by acting as host of an anti-gay-marriage rally at the center.
All three of the King children referred all questions to their lawyers.
At the center of the latest dispute is a 1995 agreement, signed by all the children and their mother, that transfers control of their intellectual property to King Inc. Lawyers for the corporation said the agreement blocks Bernice, as executor of Coretta Scott King’s estate, from claiming ownership over her personal papers.
But Mr. Smith said Dexter King had himself violated that agreement by receiving $200,000 for his 2003 memoir, “Growing Up a King.”
“He cannot have it both ways,” Mr. Smith said. “But we take the position that personal property items that belong to any one of the siblings do not belong to the corporation.”
He also said Dexter had violated his duties as chairman of King Inc. by not calling a meeting with his siblings for years.
Coretta Scott King’s personal papers were discovered in her house in 2006 by Yolanda King, the oldest of her children, who died last year. They include “intimate letters between the Kings and documents concerning the civil rights movement,” according to a brief filed in the case.
Ms. Reynolds has worked for years on the book, which weaves interviews and Ms. King’s personal writings into a ghostwritten autobiography in Ms. King’s own words. The two met in 1972, when Ms. Reynolds was a reporter for The Chicago Tribune, and remained in communication until Ms. King’s death.
Ms. Reynolds has written five books, including a biography of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and she said Ms. King had personally asked her to write her biography, a follow-up to her 1969 autobiography, “My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.”
But Mr. Smith, the lawyer for Bernice and Martin King, said their mother disapproved of Ms. Reynolds’s writing style and later changed her mind about the book. “While it is true that at one time our mother did indeed collaborate with Rev. Barbara Reynolds on the writing of her second book, the reality is that the book was not finished because our mother severed the relationship long before she passed away,” the two said in a statement. “As keepers and guardians of her legacy, it is our responsibility to make sure that her wishes are carried out and that her voice is never silenced, particularly as it relates to her life’s journey.”
Ms. Reynolds said the dispute had left her shaken. “Ms. King was my mentor,” she said. “I just wanted to perpetuate her legacy.”
fight
Dr. King’s Children Battling Over Book
By ROBBIE BROWN
Published: October 13, 2008
ATLANTA — The three living children of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have feuded before. This time the squabbling is over the legacy and estate not of their father but of their mother.
In the third King v. King legal dispute in four months, two of Dr. King’s children are refusing to provide a biographer of their mother, Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006, with a collection of her photographs, letters and personal papers. Their brother, Dexter King, chairman of their father’s estate, has asked a judge to force them to comply.
At stake is a $1.4 million book deal with the Penguin Group — as well as the reputation of one of America’s most famous families. Penguin said it intends to terminate the contract and demand the return of a $300,000 advance if the Kings do not turn over the papers to the biographer, Barbara Reynolds, by Friday.
The two children who oppose the book, the Rev. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, say their mother did not want Ms. Reynolds to write the biography. Dexter King, who orchestrated the deal, said his siblings and mother signed control of their intellectual property over to their father’s estate.
A judge has ordered the Kings to appear in an Atlanta courtroom on Tuesday to resolve the dispute.
“It’s sad and pathetic to see the three of them behaving in this self-destructive way,” said David J. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Dr. King. “Unfortunately all of the children seem to regard their father’s legacy as first and foremost an income maximization opportunity for themselves.”
Lawyers for both sides drew similar conclusions, although of course they blamed different children.
“Bernice and Martin appear willing to tear down Dr. King’s legacy to build their own,” said L. Lin Wood, a lawyer for King Inc., the corporation that handles the rights to their father’s works. “They are engaged in what can fairly be described as self-destructive behavior. It’s a scorched-earth policy. And unfortunately they’ve tarnished the legacy of Dr. King.”
Jock Smith, the lawyer for Bernice and Martin King, said: “Martin Luther King’s whole philosophy was based on inclusion of all of God’s children. For Dexter to not allow Bernice and Martin to have equal rights within the very corporation that evangelizes their father is totally contrary to that philosophy.”
Ms. Reynolds, 66, a journalist, minister and longtime acquaintance of the King family, has said she may now abandon the book. “There’s an African proverb, ‘When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled,’ ” she said. “These are fights between siblings for control. I’m just a writer caught in the middle.”
A rally of back-and-forth lawsuits within the family began in July, when Bernice and Martin sued Dexter, alleging that he had mismanaged their father’s estate and illegally removed funds from their mother’s estate. He countersued, claiming that his siblings had improperly borrowed office space and company cars from the King Center, an Atlanta civil rights museum. He also accused Bernice of corrupting their father’s legacy by acting as host of an anti-gay-marriage rally at the center.
All three of the King children referred all questions to their lawyers.
At the center of the latest dispute is a 1995 agreement, signed by all the children and their mother, that transfers control of their intellectual property to King Inc. Lawyers for the corporation said the agreement blocks Bernice, as executor of Coretta Scott King’s estate, from claiming ownership over her personal papers.
But Mr. Smith said Dexter King had himself violated that agreement by receiving $200,000 for his 2003 memoir, “Growing Up a King.”
“He cannot have it both ways,” Mr. Smith said. “But we take the position that personal property items that belong to any one of the siblings do not belong to the corporation.”
He also said Dexter had violated his duties as chairman of King Inc. by not calling a meeting with his siblings for years.
Coretta Scott King’s personal papers were discovered in her house in 2006 by Yolanda King, the oldest of her children, who died last year. They include “intimate letters between the Kings and documents concerning the civil rights movement,” according to a brief filed in the case.
Ms. Reynolds has worked for years on the book, which weaves interviews and Ms. King’s personal writings into a ghostwritten autobiography in Ms. King’s own words. The two met in 1972, when Ms. Reynolds was a reporter for The Chicago Tribune, and remained in communication until Ms. King’s death.
Ms. Reynolds has written five books, including a biography of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and she said Ms. King had personally asked her to write her biography, a follow-up to her 1969 autobiography, “My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.”
But Mr. Smith, the lawyer for Bernice and Martin King, said their mother disapproved of Ms. Reynolds’s writing style and later changed her mind about the book. “While it is true that at one time our mother did indeed collaborate with Rev. Barbara Reynolds on the writing of her second book, the reality is that the book was not finished because our mother severed the relationship long before she passed away,” the two said in a statement. “As keepers and guardians of her legacy, it is our responsibility to make sure that her wishes are carried out and that her voice is never silenced, particularly as it relates to her life’s journey.”
Ms. Reynolds said the dispute had left her shaken. “Ms. King was my mentor,” she said. “I just wanted to perpetuate her legacy.”
fight