From Publishers Weekly
Joining forces with renowned African-American writer Wiley (Why Black People Tend to Shout), King, a son of the slain civil rights leader, and president, CEO and chairman of Atlanta's King Center, searches for answers to the question "Free at last. Was I? Were we?" The authors combine research from newspapers, documentaries, FBI records, books and King's own childhood memories in this abridged audio translation. While King's matter-of-fact tone and nearly monotone reading come off somewhat as recited, it somehow seems essential to the audiobook's credibility. By turns hopeful and bitter, King offers unique observations on topics including theories on his dad's assassination, the school system, the film industry, his fear of intimacy and his lifelong love of music. Candid about the burden and consequences he and his siblings suffered growing up in their father's shadow, and the often misunderstood public perception of his family, King still manages to impart deep emotion through his story, alternately calling himself "one of the royally cursed King children" and a "jumble of contradictions" who was born premature, anxious and worried, and has been "endlessly proving" himself since.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The author recalls his emotional struggles until he turned back to father Martin Luther King's writings. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The family of Martin Luther King, Jr., drew criticism for investigating a possible conspiracy in the assassination of the Civil Rights leader. Here, Dexter Scott King explains why his family opened old wounds in an effort to find answers. The truth may have died with convicted killer James Earl Ray, but Dexter King's reading brings alive the pain that fueled his family's search. Now the leader of the King Center, he was born into a family that had already felt danger because of his father's fight for equality, and he lost his father at age 7. His narration of how those early experiences shaped his life is fascinating listening. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Dexter King, who bears an incredible resemblance to his famous father, was seven years old when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. In this memoir, he recalls the weight of expectations placed on him as the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Baptist ministers, even before his father became famous as a civil rights leader. Traumatized by the death of his father, Dexter recalls the feelings of doom among all the King children, giving them a special kinship with the Kennedys. A host of surrogate fathers, including Andrew Young, provided needed male guidance, but Dexter recalls the powerful strain of living up to the particular expectations placed on King's children as they searched for their own individual identities. He recollects his own personal struggle with faith and aimless years of drifting professionally, dabbling in photography, law enforcement, and music. Dexter also details his troubled tenure as president of the King Center in Atlanta, the controversies regarding protection of intellectual property rights to his father's speeches and writings, and the family's struggle to sort through conspiracy theories surrounding King's assassination. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Dexter King was only seven when an assassin's bullet took his father's life, shattering the boy's childhood. And as he stumbled into adolescence, both the tragedy and the weight of living up to the King legacy would exact an additional toll. Challenged with undiagnosed A.D.D. and rocked once again by his grandmother's murder, King became emotionally isolated and, in his early 30s, sought answers from an inspiring source: the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, in this intimate portrait, Dexter King reveals for the first time what it was like growing up in the shadow of greatness, and how his father's lessons continue to inspire and inform his own ideas on race in America today.

Download Description
Dexter King, who would grow up to eerily resemble his legendary father, MLK, Jr., and display some of the same eloquence, was seven years old when an assassin's bullet took his father's life. The bond between father and son was a close one. For years afterward, Dexter was haunted by a memory of himself and his dad riding their bikes through Atlanta's streets, and by his father's full-throated laugh as he romped with the King children. Dexter tried to find courage in his father's example of selfless heroism, but as his shattered childhood ripened into adolescence, the weight of "the King legacy" pressed down ever more heavily.Kept at arms-length by schoolchildren who weren't sure what to make of the son of a secular saint, afflicted with undiagnosed ADD, and shell-shocked further by the assassination of his grandmother, Dexter stumbled warily into adulthood. Ironically, the wall that separated him from potential friends and girlfriends was sometimes comforting. In distancing himself from others, he lessened the chances of loss.Only in his early 30s did he confront "the legacy" head on, and when he did, he discovered what his father was trying to tell him-and us-about what really matters. Replete with remarkable insights into what families of "fallen heroes" must contend with, as well as surprisingly intimate moments and fresh reflections on race in America, this is a truly extraordinary book.

About the Author
Dexter King lives in Los Angeles, California. Collaborator Ralph Wiley is one of America's most distinguished African American writers.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Dexter King, the son of Rev. Martin Luther King jr., was just seven when an assassin's bullet transformed his minister/activist father into a martyr for the civil rights movement. Growing up without a father and challenged by undiagnosed ADD, Dexter struggled along, emotionally isolated and self-consciously vulnerable. Only in his 30s did he gain a personal appreciation of his father's teachings and achieve a healthy sense of himself. This gripping, strangely haunting book reads nothing like most "famous son" memoirs.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

He was seven when his father fell to an assassin's bullet. He ventured warily through adolescence shell-shocked from lingering pain and fresh tragedy. But as an adult, he was determined to confront the past -- and to find purpose in the future -- by discovering the truth about his father's murder and protecting his father's legacy. To a bitterly divided country, Martin Luther King, Jr., was a leader who represented shining hope and long-overdue equality. To his youngest son, Dexter, though, "Daddy" was the gentle, unpretentious man who joyfully played with his children and whose steadfast, easy presence made life seem normal even during the most turbulent days of the 1960s. Then the civil rights leader was brutally assassinated...and Dexter found his family's life and his own sense of security irrevocably shattered. Under the glare of relentless, decades-long media coverage, he felt isolated from everyone, including his peers. He was traumatized further by the assassination of his grandmother as well as the death of another family member in which foul play was suspected. Yet as he wrestled with the wrenching grief he didn't know how to resolve -- and despite tremendous community expectations -- he decided to live his own life and uncover his true talents. Eventually, Dexter became aware of disturbing inconsistencies in the accepted version of his father's slaying. His courageous efforts, amid widespread skepticism, to investigate what really happened resulted in a civil jury trial proving there was a conspiracy involving governmental agencies to murder his father. And in facing down his darkest fears, he at last secured his own freedom, while protecting his family and his heritage. Poignant -- and bracingly candid -- Growing up King is an intimate portrait of an unforgettable hero, a loving, searching son, and the unbreakable bond between them. It evokes the frustration and yearning we all experience when we struggle to come to terms with the past -- and, from

SYNOPSIS

In the bestselling tradition of such family portraits as Brooke Hayward's Haywire, Christopher Dickey's Summer of Deliverance, and Margaret Salinger's Dream Catcher, this is a disarmingly candid and tear-evoking memoir by the youngest son of slain civil rights champion, Martin Luther King, Jr.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

In view of recent criticism of how the King family handles Martin's legacy, Growing Up King serves as both a memoir and a brief for the family defense. Early on we learn of the close connection between MLK and his children; he was, despite his frequent travel, the epitome of a doting father. Dexter King takes enormous pride in his father's achievements, even though his posthumous standing made for unique trials and challenges in Dexter's youth and early adulthood. — William Jelani Cobb

Book Magazine - Eric Wargo

The forty-one-year-old son of Martin Luther King Jr. has drawn criticism for his claim that a conspiracy was behind his father's assassination, as well as for allegedly selling out his father's legacy for profit. In this memoir, a defensive King tries to set the record straight. He's candid and interesting on some subjects, including his childhood and his struggle with attention deficit disorder, but when it comes to his adult life and career, King's self-searching comes off as self-serving. He is impassioned on the subject of intellectual property and the right to profit from it, for example, but he never directly addresses the criticism he received for allowing his father's image to be used in TV advertisements for Alcatel and Cingular. By the end of the book, King comes across as beleaguered. Hostile forces seem to be everywhere in his world: He decries the "forces out there that do not want what is best for Dad's legacy"—forces that have been critical of the $30 million price tag he put on his father's papers—and the "host of things, from dental materials in my mouth to my favorite foods," that he says caused his ADD. It would be unfair to expect King to have his father's depth of character, but such comparisons are inevitable, and the younger King, unfortunately, comes up short.

Publishers Weekly

Joining forces with renowned African-American writer Wiley (Why Black People Tend to Shout), King, a son of the slain civil rights leader, and president, CEO and chairman of Atlanta's King Center, searches for answers to the question "Free at last. Was I? Were we?" The authors combine research from newspapers, documentaries, FBI records, books and King's own childhood memories in this abridged audio translation. While King's matter-of-fact tone and nearly monotone reading come off somewhat as recited, it somehow seems essential to the audiobook's credibility. By turns hopeful and bitter, King offers unique observations on topics including theories on his dad's assassination, the school system, the film industry, his fear of intimacy and his lifelong love of music. Candid about the burden and consequences he and his siblings suffered growing up in their father's shadow, and the often misunderstood public perception of his family, King still manages to impart deep emotion through his story, alternately calling himself "one of the royally cursed King children" and a "jumble of contradictions" who was born premature, anxious and worried, and has been "endlessly proving" himself since. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Forecasts, Dec. 2, 2002). (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The author recalls his emotional struggles until he turned back to father Martin Luther King's writings. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile