Posted on April 1, 2013

MLK’s Children Besmirch His Legacy with Their Greed

Barry Saunders, News Observer, April 1, 2013

The three surviving children of Martin and Coretta Scott King have become the Fred Sanford and Bubba Bexley of the 21st century.

Remember on “Sanford & Son” when Fred donated those vintage Blind Mellow Jelly albums that turned out to be more valuable than he thought?

He and best bud Bubba cooked up a scheme to get them back: Bubba dressed as Blind Mellow Jelly’s son–Potbelly–and showed up to solemnly announce over and over “I want my daddy’s records.”

Martin III, Bernice and Dexter King–henceforth known as The King Three–in their seemingly never-ending quest to both besmirch and make a buck off their daddy’s name, already prohibit news organizations from using parts of their daddy’s image without breaking them off some cheddar. Now, they are seemingly demanding the return of every piece of memorabilia their father or mother ever touched.

For instance, they demanded millions from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation that was raising money for the memorial on the National Mall, then they demanded that the foundation drop Dr. King’s name from its official title.

When they sued each other, some of us thought–nay, prayed–that their avarice had bottomed out. Dexter reportedly sued his siblings to get some love letters their parents had written to each other so he could include them in his book; they then sued him for not cutting them in on the book deal.

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They last month lost a lawsuit against a man whose mother owned documents and artifacts given her by Dr. King. An appeals court ruled in favor of Howard Ballou after the three King children sued for the return of items their father had given to Maude Ballou, Howard’s mom.

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