MLK's Kids Fight Over Letters

Judge orders Bernice to bring unpublished papers to court
By Ambreen Ali,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2008 5:17 PM CDT
MLK's Kids Fight Over Letters
Bernice, Dexter, MLK III, and Yoland watch as the casket of their mother, Coretta Scott King, is brought up the steps of the Capitol to lie in honor in the Rotunda in Atlanta.   (AP Phot)

Legal battles among Martin Luther King Jr's children drag on, this time over who gets mom and dad's unpublished correspondence. Yesterday, a judge ordered youngest daughter Bernice, the administrator of Coretta Scott King's estate, to bring to court letters and photos that sit at the heart of a disputed $1.4 million book deal signed by her brother, Dexter, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The correspondence would be used in an autobiography of Scott King that Bernice maintains her mother did not want. Lawyers for Dexter, the administrator of MLK's estate, point to a 1995 contract signed by Scott King that gave the corporation rights to “autobiographies relating to the life of any of the heirs.” Bernice and brother MLK III say their mother did not like preliminary chapters written by the autobiographer before her death.
(More Martin Luther King Jr. stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X