Actor, singer and social activist Harry Belafonte has sued the children of Rev. Martin Luther King over ownership of three documents belonging to the civil rights' icon's family, CNN reported. Belafonte filed a lawsuit in federal court against Bernice King, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III this week.
The 86-year-old Belafonte, who tried to sell the three documents through a Sotherby's auction of items in 2008, had them "taken off... [by] the King estate who said the singer unlwawfully acquired them," IBTimes News reported Belafonte is suing them to establish ownership of the materials, the lawsuit claims.
The three documents in question include an outline written on a legal pad in an apartment of King's anti-Vietnam War speech he gave in 1967, IBTimes reported.
"There are also notes for a speech King had in his pocket the day he was shot to death," CNN reported. The other document is a condolence letter written by President Lyndon Johnson sent to King's widow followinng his assassination.
Martin Luther King Jr. was killed at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39.
Belafonte said all three documents were given personally to him by King or by his aides.
"Whenever we got into trouble or when tragedy struck, Harry has always come to our aid, his generous heart wide open," Coretta Scott King wrote in her autobiography, CNN reported.
The family split from Belafonte in 2006 when the children disinvited him to speak at their mother's funeral after announcing that President George W. Bush would attend it.
"Belafonte, the King children, their lawyers and representatives would not comment on the litigation," CNN reported.
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