Luther King's son faces the sack

The famed civil rights organisation founded by Martin Luther King is threatening to fire his son as president for failing to breathe new life into the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Martin Luther King III has been ‘‘insubordinate, obstinate’’ and has not raised money for the non-profit organisation during his three-year tenure, SCLC board chairman Claud Young wrote to King .

Last month, the organisation placed King on leave, but reinstated him about a week later. The conflict could come to a head at the SCLC’s national convention in Montgomery, Alabama, next month.

Critics complain King is too often absent and has not fulfilled hopes that he would restore the SCLC to its civil-rights-era prominence.

King supporters say SCLC board members, many of whom are comfortable, middle-class blacks, have allowed the organisation to decline. Many of the 50 board members have held their posts since King’s father was in charge.