The two sons of Martin Luther King, Jr. are suing their sister for the rights to the civil rights leader's Nobel Peace Prize and his Bible so they can sell them, according to a statement released by Bernice King.
The lawsuit against Bernice was filed on Friday by Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King III to obtain the two items, which are both worth millions,
The Daily Beast is reporting.
"On January 20, as we observed my father's 85th birthday and The King Holiday, my brothers, Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King III, notified me that they want to sell to a private buyer our father's most prized possessions, his Nobel Peace Prize Medal and his personal Bible, which was used by President Barack Obama as he was sworn in for his second term in office and subsequently signed by him," Bernice said in a statement obtained by
The Daily Beast.
"The thought of profiting from the sale of the Peace Prize Medal, which my father accepted 50 years ago this year on behalf of the greatest demonstration of peace this nation has ever seen, is spiritually violent, unconscionable, historically negligent, and outright morally reprehensible," she added.
"This is especially true in light of the fact that my father gave away every dime of the Nobel award money to support the civil rights movement."
Last August also marked the 50th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
This is not the first legal squabble between the King children.
In August 2013, Dexter and MLK III filed a lawsuit to have Bernice removed as head of The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. They also wanted their father's close friend Andrew Young and their cousin Alveda King removed from the board of directors.
Dexter sued Bernice six years ago for the private letters between their father and mother, Coretta Scott King, which she had since 2006 after their mother died.
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