King’s Son to Head Center in Atlanta

ATLANTA —  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s son, Dexter, on the eve of the anniversary of his father’s 60th birthday, was named president of the institution established to further the nonviolent philosophy espoused by the slain civil rights leader.

Coretta Scott King, the current president and chief executive officer of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, named the younger of King’s two sons president Saturday and said she will retain the CEO title.

Dexter King, 27, will assume his new post on April 4. Mrs. King started the center in her basement in 1968, the year her husband was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

The center includes a library and archives containing more than 2,000 speeches made by King, a conference center and an administration building--all forming a rectangle around the King crypt with its eternal flame and inscription, “Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty I’m Free at Last.”