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Martin Luther King's children battle over Nobel medal, Bible; civil rights veterans take sides

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Bernice King speaks during a news conference at historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where her father Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, in Atlanta. King is in a legal battle with her brothers over her father's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) (The Associated Press)

FILE-- In this file photo taken Nov. 20, 2006 the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King from left, Martin Luther King III, Dexter King, the late Yolanda King and Bernice King stand next to a new crypt dedicated to their parents in Atlanta. Bernice is in a legal battle with her brothers over their father's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal. (AP Photo/W.A. Harewood, File) (The Associated Press)

Bernice King, right, gets a kiss from Albert Brinson as Rev. C.T. Vivian looks on at left during a news conference Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, in Atlanta, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church where her father Martin Luther King Jr. preached. King is in a legal battle with her brothers over her father's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) (The Associated Press)

A generation after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, his children are fighting again over control of his legacy.

This time it involves two of his most cherished possessions: his Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Bible he carried.

King's daughter Bernice King has both items, and she says her brothers, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III, are demanding she hand them over so they can be sold.

It is the latest in a string of disputes over the years that some historians have come to see as a sad and unseemly footnote to history that could damage King's name.