The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change sadly announced the passing of Dexter Scott King, the youngest son and the third child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King.
The civil rights leader’s youngest son, who was 62, died Jan. 22 following a battle with prostate cancer. Born in Atlanta, Dexter would have celebrated his 63rd birthday on Jan. 30. He was named after the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father served his first pastorate.
Dexter was the second-born son of Dr. and Mrs. King and was only 7 years old when his father was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. Like his father, he grew up in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where his grandfather served as pastor. The son of the civil rights figure graduated from Frederick Douglass High School, where he played football and participated in many other school activities. He was an alumnus of HBCU Morehouse College. Read more at www.blackenterprise.com.
