Addressing her supporters at the Ebenezer Baptist Church Atlanta, CNN said that Dr. Bernice King finally agreed to hand over her father's traveling Bible and the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize to a county court. The decision to turn over the items was the latest development regarding the estate of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, whose family members are engaged in a squabble regarding the sale of some of the slain civil rights activist's items.
Dr. King told her audience, "I must say it is deep-in-my-soul difficult to place my father's prized, precious heirlooms under the custody of the state, even if only for a season. Yet I recognize that justice and righteousness are not always aligned," she continued, "and there's often a disconnect between God's law and man's law. As dad said, 'We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.' "
The Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia, perhaps in response to King's announcement, has agreed to extend the deadline for Luther King Jr's daughter to surrender the items for safekeeping after the litigation between her and her brothers had been settled. CNN said that the hearing for the lawsuit involving the surviving board members of the civil rights activist's estate will begin on September 29 this year.
CNN said the issue of the coveted items was spurred by Bernice's refusal to surrender the items to her brothers for sale. She had once said that the items were too sentimental to be auctioned off. In her latest speech, she had urged her brothers and potential buyers of the items to be reasonable and follow their consciousness, clearly insinuating that she was still not open to the sale of the traveling Bible and the Nobel Prize.
CNN said the court had given her until Monday to surrender the items, which will later be placed in a safe-deposit box.
