The Nation - News from Aug. 10, 1989

The son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has quit the organization carrying on his father’s nonviolent philosophy in a power struggle with his mother, Coretta Scott King, the Atlanta Constitution reported. But Stoney Johnson, spokesman for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, would not confirm that Dexter King had resigned as president. King, 28, who took the position four months ago, quit a few days after his top adviser resigned in a dispute over the center’s budget and programs, the newspaper said. Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, a longtime friend of the family who works with the center, would not confirm the report but did acknowledge “a little tension between the generations.” As president, Dexter King was to handle the daily management of the center and to help build a $40-million endowment within the next decade.