Dexter Scott King, Martin Luther King’s youngest son, dies at 62
The King Center, announced the passing of its chairman and longtime leader. “He gave it everything and battled this terrible disease until the end.”
Dexter Scott King, son of the most visible activist and leader of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr, died on Monday at the age of 62, after a tough battle against prostate cancer. Dexter was the third child of the marriage between the activist and Coretta Scott King, and the family, together with the King Center, named in honor of his father’s memory, announced the news.
“He transitioned peacefully in his sleep at home with me in Malibu. He gave it everything and battled this terrible disease until the end. As with all the challenges in his life, he faced this hurdle with bravery and might,” said his wife of eleven years, Leah Weber King, in a statement from the King Center.
Like his wife, his older brother, Martin Luther King III, released a statement: ““words cannot express the heart break I feel from losing another sibling. 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.”
Following in his father's footsteps
At just seven years old, in 1968, Dexter King, along with his older brother found out on television about the murder of his father in Memphis. “It was a very chaotic and traumatic period,” he told CNN television. After the death of his father, Dexter King decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. “People would say, ‘I want you to be just like your father,’ or ‘You should be a minister,’” he said.
His career has been very marked by his father’s legacy, and he became a defender of civil and animal rights until the last of his days. He chose to be a vegan due to his non-violent beliefs towards animals. “There is a connection between how you live life and how you treat others,” he told The Vegetarian Times magazine in 1995.
He attended Morehouse College from 1979 to 1984 where he studied business administration but left before graduating. Dexter became chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the King Center in 2005. He played his father in the 2002 film, “The Rosa Parks Story.”