A week to the day since our nationwide annual celebration of MLK Day (January 15), we must now sadly report that the King Family is experiencing yet another loss with the passing of Dexter Scott King.

Youngest son of the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and equally missed Coretta Scott King, Dexter reportedly succumbed to an extensive battle with prostate cancer today (January 22). 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.’”

 

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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