Harry Belafonte Sues MLK Estate

Actor and singer Harry Belafonte has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the late Martin Luther King, Jr.’s three surviving children over the ownership of three documents the King children claim belong to their father’s estate.

These are the items that initially came from Belafonte’s memorabilia collection:

1. A three-page outline for Dr. King’s 1967 speech “The Casualties of the War in Vietnam.” Dr. King wrote the outline himself on a legal pad in Belafonte’s New York apartment. Belafonte says Dr. King gave him this document.

2. A condolence letter from President Lyndon B. Johnson to Mrs. King. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, gave it to Belafonte.

3. An envelope Dr. King had scribbled notes for a speech he was going to give in Memphis, TN. He had it in his pocket on April 4, 1968, the day he was assassinated. Dr. King’s aide, Stanley Levison, left it to Belafonte by bequest.

Belafonte planned on selling the documents in December 2008 at Sotheby’s auction house to raise money for Barrios Unidos, a charity that works with street gangs. But his ownership was challenged by Dr. King’s heirs who wrote to Sotheby’s that the documents were “part of a wrongfully acquired collection.”

Caught in the middle, Southeby’s has not alternative but to retain the items in its storage vault until ownership is legally established, whether in or out of court.

So far, the King family has had a succession of lawsuits seeking to recover various items that were in the hands of institutions and people. Coretta King lost her lawsuit, attempting to get 83,000 documents back that Dr. King gave to Boston University in mid-1960s.

In 2011, the King estate sued Dr. King’s former secretary, Maude Ballou, in an effort to prevent her from selling numerous documents, notes, letters and speeches in her possession, but were unable to produce any evidence that contradicted Mrs. Ballou’s position that Dr. King gave her the items.

Harry Belafonte’s lawyer, Jonathan Abady, told the New York Times that the King estate has never presented evidence any evidence to support their claim that Belafonte acquired the documents “wrongfully,” and legally speaking, they have run out of time to file a suit. He also said “whatever rights the King children have, they are not entitled to undo the wishes and actions of their parents.”

Image credit: Siebbi, Ipernity.com