Singer Harry Belafonte says he’s resolved his legal fight with the family of Martin Luther King Jr., cutting a settlement deal allowing him to get back documents he claims he retained through his close relationship with the late civil-rights leader and had hoped to auction off for charity.
The “King of Calypso” and reps for King’s estate issued a joint statement Friday announcing a “compromise” had been reached in the Manhattan federal court suit “resulting in Mr. Belafonte retaining possession of the documents.” Other terms of the settlement will stay “confidential,” the statement says.
The documents include notes from an undelivered speech that King had on him when he was assassinated in 1968, a famous 1967 speech that was King’s first outcry against America’s involvement in Vietnam, and a condolence letter that then-President Lyndon Johnson sent to King’s wife, Coretta, following King’s death.
Coretta Scott King gave Belafonte the LBJ letter in 2003, three years before she passed away. The notes from the Memphis speech — potentially King’s last written words — were left to Belafonte by a former King aide upon his death in 1979. Belafonte got the Vietnam speech outline directly from King.
Belafonte has previously estimated the total value of the documents at up to $1.3 million and reportedly said he wanted to donate the proceeds to charity.
Belafonte filed the suit in October against MLK’s daughter Bernice and the King estate “to resolve once and for all” a long-standing dispute over documents he tried to auction off in 2008 — only to have Bernice King claim the papers were “wrongfully acquired.”
Bernice King had held up the settlement for months by not answering the complaint, according to court documents. The settlement was only able to go forward after Judge Robert Sweet earlier this week found Bernice King in default for not answering the complaint.