Would-be King biographer caught in sibling feud
By ERRIN HAINES – Oct 10, 2008
ATLANTA (AP) — An author and minister who spent hours interviewing Coretta
Scott King for her biography said Friday that she may abandon the project because of the drawn-out, public legal feud among
the King siblings.
In a telephone interview with The Associated
Press, the Rev. Barbara Reynolds said she did not want the 30-year relationship she shared with the civil rights matriarch
tarnished by the ongoing fight among the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children.
"She was a woman of dignity, but I don't see anything dignified about all of this," Reynolds said,
noting that she'd like to finish the book with the family's blessing. "I just may walk away and refuse to write
anything. I'm not going to soil that relationship nor that memory."
The siblings are expected to appear Tuesday in Fulton County court to argue over who should have control of several
personal papers, including intimate correspondences between their parents, that could be part of a $1.4 million publishing
deal negotiated by Dexter King as head of his father's estate.
The
lawsuit — one of three involving the Kings filed since July — could derail Reynolds' book deal. New York-based
publisher Penguin Group is threatening to yank the contract if the papers are not turned over by Oct. 17.
Reynolds, who now lives in Maryland, said she's caught in the middle.
"I'm just a little fish out here that's in the way of this battle
for control that's going on," Reynolds said. "I am sure neither Dr. King nor Mrs. King would ever want me to
disturb anybody's peace like this or be a part of any public war."
Reynolds said her relationship with the Kings began in the 1970s, when Mrs. King invited her to the Martin Luther
King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and she wrote a story about it while working as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
She frequently sought Coretta Scott King's counsel on the theory of nonviolence.
Over the years, Reynolds said she stayed at the King family home in Atlanta and attended church with Coretta Scott King at
Ebenezer Baptist Church — where Martin Luther King Jr. preached from 1960 until his death.
"She sent me birthday cards, Christmas cards," Reynolds said. "I was never like a pal, but she was
always my mentor."
Reynolds said Mrs. King asked her to
write her life story around 1996 or 1997, unsatisfied with other writers she had worked with on the project. The two visited
for about a year and a half, but then the project "hit a snag," Reynolds said. King died in January 2006 before
the book was finished.
A year later, Reynolds said her book
proposal was well-received by Dexter and Yolanda King. Reynolds said she and Yolanda King had discussed the book in May, but
the actress died on May 15. Again, the book was on hold.
Within
two months, Reynolds said she was told by Dexter King to move forward. She said she was not aware that Mrs. King changed her
mind about Reynolds writing the book, as Bernice King — now the executor of her mother's estate — has claimed.
Jock Smith, an attorney representing Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, said
Friday that Mrs. King wouldn't want the book finished.
"We'll
be able to prove that," Smith said, adding that because of Mrs. King's nonconfrontational nature, she was reluctant
to address the issue directly with Reynolds. "It won't just be Bernice and Martin saying that. We'll have other
people coming forward who are not involved in the lawsuit who can confirm that fact."
Lin Wood, the attorney representing the estate of Martin Luther King Jr. — known as King Inc. — did not
immediately return a phone message left at his office Friday afternoon.
Reynolds said she does not plan to attend next week's court hearing, though she said she was asked to come. But
Reynolds said she does not want to be involved and does not talk to any of the King children. But she also said she and Bernice
King — who is also a minister — should be able to work out their differences so the book can be finished.
"My prayer is that somehow God will touch Bernice to understand that I'm
not her enemy," Reynolds said. "There's no group of people in the world I respect more than the Kings."
