Greene County Democrat

Tag: Coretta Scott King

  • Newswire : Dexter Scott King, champion of civil rights and son of MLK Jr., succumbs to prostate cancer at 62

    By Stacy M. Brown
    NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Dexter Scott King, the youngest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has died at 62. The King Center, along with statements from the family, confirmed Dexter’s death on Monday, January 22, just one week after the nation observed his father’s holiday. King’s family said he died after a valiant battle against prostate cancer.
    Family members claimed that King, a tenacious civil rights activist in his own right, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his Malibu home while spending time with his loved ones. Leah Weber King, Dexter’s wife since 2013, shared the news through a statement from the King Center. “He transitioned peacefully in his sleep at home with me in Malibu,” she said. “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.”
    Martin Luther King III, Dexter’s older brother, also expressed deep sorrow, urging everyone to keep the entire King family, especially Dexter’s wife, Leah Weber, in their thoughts and prayers.
    Reverend Al Sharpton, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement, later shared his condolences. “I am heartbroken to hear that Dexter King left us this morning, but I was comforted by the knowledge that he is reunited with his parents and sister,” Sharpton stated.
    Dexter’s mother, Coretta Scott King, died in 2006, and his sister, Yolanda Denise King, died in 2007. Dexter, born on January 30, 1961, carried his father’s legacy forward. According to a King Center bio, he attended Morehouse College, majoring in business administration, and in 2005, he took on the roles of chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the King Center.
    Dexter’s vision for his father’s legacy was clear: to educate the public about and perpetuate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolence globally. Beyond his activism, Dexter made significant contributions to media and entertainment. He starred in and produced films, records, and television specials focused on the civil rights movement. His animated movie, “Our Friend Martin,” received an Emmy Award nomination, and he authored the intimate memoir “Growing Up King” in 2003.
    Recognized as one of Ebony magazine’s “100 Most Influential Black Americans,” Dexter Scott King worked along with his family to keep his parents’ legacy alive.
    “On behalf of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), representing the Black Press of America, we pause to mourn and to celebrate the life of Dexter King, who in his own way strived to exemplify the outstanding legacy of his father, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” said NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., a civil rights legend who worked under Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We express our sympathy to the King family, and we rededicate the Black Press to keep Dr. King’s dream alive, not only for all Americans but for people throughout the world

  • Newswire : The Schomburg Center acquires Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis’ Archive

    Written By NewsOne Staff

    Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis

            The legacies of late actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis will prevail in Harlem. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library—a cultural institution that serves as a hub for research and programming surrounding the global Black experience—has acquired the legendary couple’s archive, the New York Public Library reported.
        The couple’s mementos being brought to the Schomburg Center is very fitting as the two spent time living in Harlem. The items that are a part of the collection capture the essence of their social activism efforts and give a glimpse into their marriage. 
        Amongst the items are postcards and letters exchanged between the couple and activist Malcolm X, a greeting card that Coretta Scott King sent to the couple, Ruby Dee’s original script for “A Raisin in the Sun,” footage of Dee and Davis’ television appearances and interviews, correspondence between Dee and Langston Hughes and other items from the couple that are embedded in the fabric of Black culture.
        The Schomburg Center acquired the archive as a part of it’s Home to Harlem project; an effort to capture the stories of impactful Black figures who had an influence in Harlem and beyond. “Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were pillars of creativity, friendship, and support during the greatest artistic and political movements of our time,” Kevin Young, Director of the Schomburg Center, said in a statement. 
        “Their love for each other and for their closest friends, as well as their commitment to advancing social progress through the arts and advocacy, is reflected in the vastness of this archive. Having their archive home to Harlem will help scholars and researchers tell an even more comprehensive story of the cultural and political evolution of the 20th century. We are privileged to be stewards of the Dee and Davis legacies, and to make them available to the public for study and exploration.”

  • Coretta Scott King wrote 1986 letter opposing federal court nomination of Jeff Sessions, letter not entered in record at that time by Strom Thurmon

     

    By Wesley Lowery , Washington Post

    coretta-scott-king

    Coretta Scott King

    The widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. urged Congress to block the 1986 nomination of Jeff Sessions for federal judge, saying that allowing him to join the federal bench would “irreparably damage the work of my husband,” according to the letter written by King that was previously publicly unavailable and obtained on Tuesday by The Post. The full letter may be read on the Internet.  “Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts,” King wrote in the cover page of her 9-page letter opposing Sessions’s nomination, which failed at the time.

    “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.”

    Thirty years later, Sessions, now himself a senator, is again undergoing confirmation hearings as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, and is facing fierce opposition from civil rights groups.

    In the letter, King writes that Sessions’s ascension to the federal bench “simply cannot be allowed to happen,” arguing that as a U.S. attorney, the Alabama lawmaker persused “politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions” and that he “lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.” She said Sessions’s conduct in prosecuting civil rights leaders in a voting fraud case “raises serious questions about his commitment to the protection of the voting rights of all American citizens.”

    “The irony of Mr. Sessions’ nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods,” she wrote, later adding: “I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress we have made toward fulfilling my husband’s dream.”

    During the 1986 hearing, the letter and King’s opposition became a crucial part of the argument against Sessions’s confirmation. Current Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has not previously released the letter, which committee rules grant him the sole authority to reveal.

    Buzzfeed News first reported the existence of the letter earlier Tuesday, noting that it was never entered into the congressional record by then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond.