Stevie Wonder joined mourners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Saturday for the candlelight memorial service honoring Dexter Scott King, the youngest son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King, who died Jan. 30, 2024 at age 62 after a battle with cancer.
Dexter Scott King was a civil rights activist, author, and attorney who served as a chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and was president of the King estate.
He was 7 when his father was assassinated in 1968 and spent much of his career working to protect the family’s intellectual property. His mother, Coretta, died in 2006, followed by his older sister, Yolanda, in 2007.
Wonder’s appearance at the Saturday memorial capped a two-hour, music-filled event led by Ebenezer pastors, including U.S. Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock, with words from MLK’s surviving children, Martin Luther King III and Rev. Bernice King, and Dexter King’s wife, Leah Weber, and performances by BeBe and CeCe Winans.
Ebenezer’s Horizon Sanctuary glowed with hundreds of candles, and solemn tones flowed from Wonder’s famous Yamaha Motif keyboard as he launched into “They Won’t Go When I Go,” a classical-inspired minor-key ballad he co-wrote with Yvonne Wright and released in 1974.
A pair of dancers moved gracefully in front of a bouquet of lilies while the Motown legend hit the verses’ soul-rumbling low notes, with members of the Celebration Choir adding rich harmonies behind him.
”The innocent will leave for sure; for them, there is a resting place,” Wonder sang, the urgency in his delivery recalling the time he played the song at a televised memorial for Michael Jackson in 2009.
#StevieWonder with a stirring rendition of his classic, ‘They Won’t Go When I Go.’ #DexterScottKing #CelebratingDexter #KingLegacy pic.twitter.com/oHgnTA5i5b
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center (@TheKingCenter) February 11, 2024
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