ADW Atlanta Daily World
Powered by Real Times Media
www.adwnews.com
Marta’s Keith Parker Promises Marta Ride with Respect Page 3
“New Atlanta” Reality Show features city’s elite Page 7
Stacii Jae Premiers Who’s Who in Black Atlanta Page 8
Volume 86 • Issue 6
Read what Dominique Wilkins is up to now Page 9
September 12 - 18, 2013
Good Chance New Atlanta Falcons Stadium Will Get South Site Says Mayor Reed By ADW’s Dion Rabouin
Photo by Maria Saporta
King Siblings in Court By Kate Brumback Associated Press
As the nation and world celebrated the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream’’ speech, his two sons and daughter were caught up in their latest legal fight over control of their father’s legacy. On Aug. 28, his estate filed a complaint in an Atlanta court asking a judge to stop a nonprofit devoted to King’s memory from using his image, likeness and memorabilia. The date was the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the slain civil rights icon’s famous speech. The estate is run by King’s sons, Martin Luther King III and Dexter King, while The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change is run by King’s remaining living daughter, Bernice King. King’s sons claim in the filing that they are the owners of the worldwide rights and property interests involving King’s name, image, likeness, recorded voice and memorabilia. That includes his writings, speeches, sermons and letters, as well as the remains and coffin in his crypt, the complaint says. In March 2007 they granted a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to the center to use King’s name, likeness and image and to publicly exhibit his writings and spoken words at the center, the complaint says. And while Martin III and Dexter support the center’s work and have been its largest financial contributor for the past decade, their relationship with the Center for Nonviolent Social Change “has recently become strained, resulting in a total breakdown in communication and transparency,’’ the complaint says. An audit and review of the center’s practices and procedures conducted by the estate in April revealed that the care and storage of the physical property is unacceptable as it could be damaged by fire, water, mold, mildew or theft. After failed meetings and communications, the estate sent a letter
to the center on Aug. 10 saying it would terminate the license at the end of a 30-day notice period. King’s sons told the center in the letter that it could prevent the termination by: putting CEO Bernice King on administrative leave pending the final outcome of the audit investigation; give the estate approval power over the use, care and treatment of the memorabilia until another solution can be implemented; and remove Alveda King, the civil rights leader’s niece, and former Atlanta mayor and civil rights veteran Andrew Young from the center’s board of directors. The estate says Alveda King tried to impede the audit investigation and that Young willfully infringed the estate’s intellectual property rights. Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Bernice King, said in a letter on Aug. 14 to The King Center’s general counsel that her brothers were exercising their majority control over the estate “to take actions that directly harm the King Center,’’ with the goal of hindering or ending the center’s current name and operations. “The King brothers have disregarded their obligations to the nonprofit center in favor of their own financial interests, and their actions risk tarnishing and reducing their father’s legacy,” Ryan wrote. Their actions are an effort to force the center’s board to give them control, and are “totally inconsistent with their duties to the King Center, and the spirit of their father and mother, the founder of the King Center,’’ Ryan continued. King was assassinated in Memphis in April 1968. His wife, Coretta Scott King, died in 2006 and Yolanda King, the Kings’ eldest child, died in 2007. That left the three remaining siblings as the sole shareholders and directors of their father’s estate, but their relationship deteriorated over legal battles.
Having secured an agreement with Friendship Baptist Church to buy their property for $19.5 million, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he believes there is a “70 percent chance” that the city will clear the final remaining hurdle to moving forward on the stadium’s so-called south site by also coming to terms with Mount Vernon Baptist Church. Both Friendship and Mount Vernon, two of Atlanta’s oldest churches, are built on land where the city wants to build the Falcons new $1 billion retractable roof stadium. Reed said he prefers the south site, located at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and Northside Dr., because of its proximity to two MARTA stations and the Georgia World Congress Center. On Monday, Sept. 9, Reed told reporters that the deal would be closed in the “next five to seven” business days, and in an exclusive interview with the Atlanta Daily World on Tuesday, the mayor seemed confident he would get the desired location. “I think the conversations are going well, there’s good energy,” Reed said. “I’d say there’s probably a 70 percent chance that we come to an agreement.” Reed was at a kickoff event for Who’s Who in Black Atlanta’s upcoming 15th edition at Frank Ski’s Restaurant in Buckhead, but took a moment to discuss the latest on the stadium. The mayor has stepped in and enlisted the help of former Atlanta mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young for negotiations after the Georgia World Congress Center Association failed to come to an agreement with Mount Vernon. The Atlanta Falcons have until Oct. 1 to conduct feasibility studies on the north stadium site if a deal cannot be reached with Mount Vernon, but both Reed and Falcons owner Arthur Blank have made it clear they want to announce a location within a week to stay on track for the stadium to open in time for the 2017 season. “There’s always fluff built into these schedules,” Blank told the AJC in an August interview. “That fluff is really gone and [the architects and construction teams] are starting to face real dates.” Last month, Reed announced that the church was seriously considering a $15.5 million offer from the city after rejecting its initial tender of $6.2 million. On Monday, Reed told reporters, “We’ll either close [the deal], or we won’t, over the next five to seven days.” Reed added that private money “has materialized,” but said that he was not prepared to discuss where that private money would come from or the specifics of a possible deal.