King Center Timeline

A timeline of events surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change:

1968: Months after Martin Luther King Jr. is slain, his widow, Coretta Scott King, announces the creation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as a nonprofit living memorial to her husband’s work.

1981: The King center organizes a coalition to create a national holiday on King’s birthday.

1983: Congress designates the third Monday of January as a national King holiday.

1989: Dexter King is named King center president but resigns after four months. He is quoted as saying, “They passed me a match and not a torch.” He is succeeded by his mother.

1994: Mrs. King steps aside as president; Dexter King succeeds her.

1994: The King center feuds with the National Park Service, which has plans to open a federally funded, nonprofit visitors center on part of the center’s site. The Kings want a multimedia museum on the site, but the facility is still unbuilt.

1996: The King Federal Holiday Commission is forced to close after a dispute with Dexter King, who viewed the commission as a competitor with the King center for funds. Mrs. King had ordered the federal commission to stop using the likeness and image of the slain civil rights leader.

1997: Time Warner Inc. signs a multimillion-dollar deal with the King family to produce a complete collection of the slain civil rights leader’s sermons, speeches and writings for sale to the public.

1998: The King family announces it is negotiating with the National Park Service to donate and sell off portions of the King center, including the MLK birth home and tomb.