Dexter King: confronts his critics and reveals his dream

IT'S not that easy being a King. The mantle of Kingship weighs heavily on the shoulders of Black America's first family and its chosen spokesman, 42-year-old Dexter Scott King, feels that pressure intensely as he tries to preserve his father's "Dream" and pursue his own.

In his new book, Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir, written with Ralph Wiley, he candidly confronts his critics and poignantly examines the effect his father's assassination had on his childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. He also discusses other family tragedies including the murder of his grandmother and the deaths of his uncle and grandfather. It was not an easy journey home.

Writing the book was difficult, he says, but, in the end, therapeutic. "I think the first half of the book is very emotional," he says. "It took me through a lot of ups and downs emotionally, while the second half gets more complicated technically."

King's book recounts in some detail the events of the night of April 4, 1968, in the King household and how he and his brother and sisters were told by the Rev. Andrew Young that their father had been killed. "I said to Uncle Andy, `That man who shot my father with a gun must not have known him, because everybody knew he was a good man,'" he wrote in the book. For years after the funeral, he was haunted, he says, by dreams of riding his bike through Atlanta's streets with his father. After the assassination, he says, he never rode his bike again.

Even today, more than 30 years after the assassination, talking about it is still painful. King refers to that time as "when my father left" as if the reality of what happened is still too painful to speak aloud. King has served as chairman, CEO and president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change for the last eight years, and he is the chosen family spokesman. He has endured a considerable amount of criticism from the media and others who are uncomfortable with some of his business decisions regarding the center and the licensing of his father's papers. He has been accused of "peddling" his father's legacy to the highest bidder.

"It's a no-win situation," he says with a sigh. "I'm thankful and grateful that my father left us a tangible legacy as well as a spiritual legacy. But the way the law is written we are forced to protect it and police it, and when it has to be licensed, we simply use the highest level of integrity and standards to make sure it is done in good taste."

He says he "tunes out" destructive criticism and welcomes constructive criticism. "My feeling is if we're doing something wrong, let's talk about it constructively, not in an attacking, negative, divisive and destructive way." He and his family believe in service to others, he says, one of his father's main messages, and that "is our first destiny, that's the forefront; the business side of the legacy has been a byproduct and an inherited kind of reactionary thing." He feels he is a good steward of his father's legacy. "I know the truth, my family knows the truth and those people of goodwill know the truth and that's what you have to live by," he says.

"My father used to say, and this is my favorite quote from him, that `the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy,'" he says, adding, "My father went on to say, `Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? But conscience asks the question: Is it right?' So for me it always comes down to it you know that you are doing the right thing, that you're true to yourself and you're true to your God, then you can't worry about the criticism." He says his father often took unpopular positions, "and I constantly remind people of that."

There is a public dispute over whether King's papers will go the Library of Congress and whether the family will be compensated for the papers. Some say the family should donate the papers to the Library. King accuses his critics of having a double standard where his father is concerned. "The government paid the family of Richard Nixon $18 million for papers, tape recordings and other materials seized after Watergate," he writes in the book. An independent appraiser valued the King papers collection at $30 million, he says. He adds that many people do not want to see King's heirs benefit. "What everybody misses here," he says, "is that we are doing the same thing my father did. He licensed and litigated and protected his property, and we have to follow the same tradition, because the way the law reads, if you don't protect it, you lose it."

King says his father clearly indicated which of his works were for the support of the Movement and which were for his family's support. "He did not put the copyrights in SCLC's name or the church's name, but he copyrighted books, speeches, sermons--these were for his family and to support his family, and every man has a right to do that." He calls the issue a "red herring," saying it is being used to divert attention from King's message of peace and nonviolence.