After Coretta Scott King’s funeral, the King Center posted a link on its Web site so visitors could make online donations in her memory. After her service, a stranger handed King Center Board Member Andrew Young a check for $5,000. Many speculate that grief will get the dollars rolling in now to the Center.
Every month I get at least one email telling me to ‘stop shopping at blank, because they have done blank, and that’s generally an affront to Black folks.’ Then I’ll pick up the newspaper and see that same company has now given money, promoted, or is being recognized for being good to Black folks. It’s a teeter-totter figuring out does the good outweigh the bad without looking like a fool.
The King Center is a teeter-totter.
Since last year, they’ve been begging for $11.6 million to do repairs. No problem. It’s legit. But there are other facts to consider. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and New York Times articles1-3 …
1. The Department of the Interior, which oversees the Park Service, last year increased their yearly operating grant of $500,000 to $1 million. The Departments of Education and Interior are now investigating whether the Center has misused up to $1 million in grant funds.
2. Center revenues run about 2 to $3 million dollars each year, while expenses are generally $2.5 million, with salaries accounting for nearly half that amount. Both Martin Luther King III and Dexter King, as Center officers, have received six-figure salaries. Additionally from 2000-2004, while acting as Chief Operating Officer, Dexter’s private firm, Intellectual Properties Management, contracted to lease employees to the Center. And over the four year period, King’s company earned $4.3 million.
3. The King estate has placed Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers, which have been appraised at $30 million, with the New York auction house, Sotheby’s.
4. The King children now squabble over whether to sell the Center to the Park Service with Bernice and MLK III saying no, Yolanda and Dexter saying yes. A recent board coup has removed Martin III and put Dexter back in charge. Isaac Farris, a close King cousin, says if the Center is sold the proceeds will be used ‘for an endowment, programs and preserving the Center’s collection of papers and artifacts.’
Now wasn’t that why the King Center was originally established?
So between no comment and confidentiality agreements we have no answers.
It’s a teeter-totter.
And good sense should be used before ever parting with our cents. Legacy or not.
1-3 King’s Center Pays Son’s Firm, Atlanta Journal Constitution, February 20, 2005
Heirs Will Bury King Legacy, Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 4, 2006
Disarray at Center for Dr. King Casts Pall on Family and Legacy, New York Times, January 14, 2006
