Martin Luther King III
MINNEAPOLIS—Martin Luther King III expressed hope that the dispute over the future of the nonprofit center that bears his father's name can be resolved soon.
The board of the Atlanta-based King Center is considering selling it to the National Parks Service.While seven board members — including two King children — support such a sale, King III and his sister Bernice are opposed.
"The goal is for the family to speak with one voice," King III, a son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, said Monday at the Universityof Minnesota. "I think we're close to resolving it."
The King Center has run operating losses that have caused financial problems in the last decade. Questions about its future have mostly been put on hold since Coretta Scott King's death in January.
King III said he maintains his opposition to selling the center. "I don't believe that is the best route for us to go," he said. "We believe the center should always be an independent voice."
The center is a memorial to the slain civil rights leader and the guardian of his legacy. King III, 48, had been the center's president until last September, but said he stepped aside until the dispute could be resolved.
He said he wants to apply his father's teachings on nonviolence to today's troubled world, saying that America still has a long way to go until it achieves his father's goal of equality.
"If you look at the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Wilma, you will see that there are still Americans whose lives could be better, who aren't able to share in all that America has to offer," he said.
— The Associated Press
