6 Leaders Who Carry on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy

Dexter Scott King, 62, the youngest son of Martin Luther King Jr., was chairman of the King Center and president of the King Estate. Named for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father was pastor early in his career, the younger King was 7 when his dad was assassinated in 1968. Dexter King portrayed his father in a small role in the 2002 TV movie The Rosa Parks Story.

As a child Hydeia Broadbent, 39, became an outspoken advocate for those living with HIV/AIDS. At a time when medication to control the disease was not widely available and millions were dying, she courageously battled the condition and gave inspirational talks to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. On a 1992 Nickelodeon special, she and basketball legend Magic Johnson talked about his HIV diagnosis. When he heard about her death, he remembered her as an activist and hero who “changed the world with her bravery.”

When Los Angeles’ African American community erupted after four white police officers were acquitted in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, the Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, 94, condemned both the rioters and the discriminatory systems that led to more than 50 deaths and $1 billion in damage. As rebuilding began, he launched an economic development program reported to have created 4,000 jobs, 300 new homeowners, and 500 new businesses.

As a young activist in the 1960s, William Strickland, 87, supported sit-ins in the South; worked alongside Malcolm X and James Baldwin to protest New York City rents; and staged protests against police brutality. After King’s assassination, Strickland co-founded the Institute of the Black World, which served as a gathering place for Black intellectuals. He was a decades-long professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught political science.

Ralph Kennedy Frasier, 85, was the last surviving member of three Black students who desegregated the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the first lawsuit after Brown v. Board of Education. He went on to become a civil rights advocate and attorney. In a statement, LDF’s Janai Nelson praised Frasier’s “lifelong commitment to advancing equality and justice.”

The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., 95, who presided over Los Angeles’ Holman United Methodist Church for 25 years, had studied Gandhi as a young missionary in India. Later, working alongside King, he taught protesters how to leverage nonviolence as a strategy to galvanize support for the civil rights movement. Lawson had invited King to Memphis to advocate for striking Black sanitation workers. It was there, on the night before his death on April 4, 1968, that King delivered his famous I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, 74, of Texas, represented her Houston-based district for nearly 30 years. She led federal efforts to protect women by rewriting the Violence Against Women Act, which included protections for Native American, transgender and immigrant women. She fought to have Juneteenth recognized. In 2021, it became the newest federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was first observed in 1986.

Thelma Mothershed Wair, 83, was one of nine Black students who integrated Little Rock (Arkansas) Central High in 1957, after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. After Gov. Orval Faubus resisted desegregation for weeks, President Dwight Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the children who faced jeers and violence. After Arkansas closed the schools the following year, Wair had to complete high school through correspondence courses. She then went on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded Wair, and the rest of the Little Rock Nine the Congressional Gold Medal.

Editor’s note: This story originally published Jan. 15, 2020. It has been updated to reflect new information.