April 15th, 2009

A man who promoted himself as a naturopathic doctor when treating the late Coretta Scott King has been arrested for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. Kurt Donsbach, 73, was taken into custody while in the midst of broadcasting his weekly Web show. He reportedly has a criminal history and a record of problems with medical authorities. More here.
TAGS: Coretta Scott King, Kurt Donsbach
November 3rd, 2008

MLK’s kids are ordered to turn over their mother’s letters.
Martin Luther King III and Bernice King were ordered by a Fulton County Superior Court judge on Friday evening to turn over personal papers and letters belonging to their late mother to their younger brother, Dexter King, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville specified just how the more than 700 boxes containing Coretta Scott King’s documents should be turned over to the court in an order released late Friday evening. The children of the civil rights legend Martin Luther King, Jr., have to turn over the documents “80 boxes at a time” or else, the judge wrote. “Any party failing to adhere to any court order … may face sanctions,” he said, adding that those sanctions could include jail time, said Don Plummer, a court spokesman. The King siblings only partially followed a previous court order, Plummer said. Some boxes were produced, but many contained other belongings of Mrs. King, not just documents. Dexter King took his siblings to court get letters sent between civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife for a book he wants to publish on his mother, Coretta Scott King. He asked for the letters on behalf of King Inc., the family corporation that controls King’s intellectual property, but his brother and sister have resisted.
TAGS: Bernice King, children, Coretta Scott King, Dexter King, fued, lawsuit, letters, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King III
October 14th, 2008

Court to review King love letters today.
Coretta Scott King kept love letters between she and her civil rights legend husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., beneath her bed, in a blue Samsonite suitcase, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But Tuesday, those letters and other “intimate correspondence” between the Kings are expected to be in a far less private place: Fulton County Superior Court. The papers are caught in an increasingly bitter and public dispute among her three living children. On one side is Dexter King, head of the corporation that handles the rights to his father’s works. In May, he negotiated a $1.4 million contract to publish a biography of his mother. It would be co-written by the Rev. Barbara Reynolds, a journalist-turned-minister who taped conversations with Mrs. King before she died in January 2006. On the other side is Dexter King’s younger sister, Bernice King, who has refused to hand over the intimate correspondence between her parents for use in the biography. Bernice King says her mother didn’t want Reynolds to write the book and that the correspondence belongs to Mrs. King’s estate, which she controls. The family corporation that Dexter King leads, called King Inc., is seeking a temporary restraining order that would force Bernice King to give the papers to Reynolds. A judge ordered her to bring the letters and photos to court Tuesday, though they are not expected to be shown in court. At stake is the book contract with Penguin Group, the New York-based publisher that has threatened to pull out should Bernice King fail to hand over the papers by Friday.
TAGS: Coretta Scott King, Court, love letters, Martin Luther King