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*{{citenews|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013100462.html|title=Coretta Scott King Leaves Own Legacy|date=], ]|org=The Washington Post}} *{{citenews|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013100462.html|title=Coretta Scott King Leaves Own Legacy|date=], ]|org=The Washington Post}}
*{{citenews|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101598.html|title=A Full Partner in The Dream|date=], ]|org=The Washington Post}} *{{citenews|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/31/AR2006013101598.html|title=A Full Partner in The Dream|date=], ]|org=The Washington Post}}

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Revision as of 21:16, 2 February 2006

Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was the wife of the assassinated civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and a noted community leader in her own right.

Childhood

King was born Coretta Scott on a farm in Heiberger, Perry County, Alabama to Obadiah and Bernice McMurry Scott. Though her family owned the land, it was often a hard life. All the children had to pick cotton during the Great Depression to help the family make ends meet.

Graduating from Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama at the top of her class in 1945, Scott went to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. After graduation she moved to Boston, Massachusetts where she met Martin Luther King Jr. She was a great civil rights activist.

Adult Life

The Kings were married on June 18, 1953 on the lawn of her parents' house; the ceremony was performed by King's father. After earning a degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory, she moved with her husband to Montgomery, Alabama in September 1954 after he was named pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

King and Scott had four children:

All four children later followed in their parents' footsteps as civil rights activists.

Scott King received honorary degrees from many institutions including Princeton University and Bates College. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a noted African-American women's sorority.

Civil Rights Movement

Just two weeks after the birth of Scott King's first child, Rosa Parks was arrested on a Montgomery bus, helping spark what would develop into the modern civil rights movement. King's husband soon emerged as a major leader of the movement. The struggles that followed included a narrow escape from death on January 30, 1956. Scott King and her daughter were home when a bomb exploded at the family's residence; her husband was speaking at Rev. Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church at the time.

Freedom Concerts

Scott King later put together a series of Freedom Concerts, which combined poetry, narration and music both to highlight the movement and to raise funds for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1962, she served as a Women's Strike for Peace delegate to the 17-nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Perhaps most notably, she preceded her husband by two years in opposing the Vietnam War, addressing a 1965 anti-war rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, while also serving as a liaison to international peace and justice organizations.

Life after Assassination of MLK

Martin Luther King Day

Coretta Scott King, along with Rosalynn Carter, Andrew Young, Jimmy Carter, and other civil rights leaders during a visit to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, January 14, 1979.

Over the years, she was active in preserving the memory of her husband, and in other political issues. After her husband was assassinated in 1968, she began attending a commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark her husband's birth every January 15 and fought for years to make it a national holiday, a quest that was realized in 1986, when the first Martin Luther King Day was celebrated.

Scott King attended the state funeral of former president Lyndon Johnson, in 1973, as a very close friend of the former president, himself a contributor to civil rights. She was also present when President Ronald Reagan signed legislation establishing Martin Luther King Day.

Opposition to Apartheid

During the 1980s, Scott King reaffirmed her long-standing opposition to apartheid, participating in a series of sit-in protests in Washington that prompted nationwide demonstrations against South African racial policies. In 1986, she traveled to South Africa and met with Winnie Mandela, while her husband Nelson Mandela was still a political prisoner on Robben Island. Upon her return to the United States, she urged Reagan to approve sanctions against South Africa. She declined invitations from Willem de Klerck and former Zulu Chief, Mubulezei.

Other Issues

She was present at the first inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, but was vocal in her opposition to capital punishment and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, thus drawing criticism from conservative groups. She was also an advocate of women's rights, lesbian and gay rights and AIDS/HIV prevention. Her support for gay and lesbian rights, including same-sex marriage, sometimes put her in conflict with some members of her family including her daughter Bernice and her niece Alveda King.

Coretta Scott King Award

The Coretta Scott King Award, a medal presented by the American Library Association, is awarded to African-American writers and illustrators for outstanding and inspirational educational contributions in children's literature.

Final days

On August 16 2005, Scott King was hospitalized after suffering a stroke and a mild heart attack. Initially, she was unable to speak or move her right side. She was released from Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on September 22, 2005, after regaining some of her speech and continued physiotherapy at home. Because of complications from the stroke, she was apparently unable to make her wishes known regarding the ongoing debate as to whether her late husband's birthplace should continue to be maintained by the city of Atlanta or the National Park Service. On January 14 2006, Mrs. King made her last public appearance in Atlanta at a dinner honoring her husband's memory.

She died in her sleep on the evening of January 30, 2006 at a rehabilitation center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, where she was undergoing holistic therapy for her stroke and advanced stage ovarian cancer. The main cause of death is believed to be respiratory failure. President George W. Bush opened his State of the Union address the night of January 31 by paying tribute to her. Her body will be returned to Atlanta and buried next to her husband at The King Center.

SENATE RESOLUTION 362

Upon the news, around the world moments of reflection, remembrance and mourning began. In the United States Senate, The Honorable William Frist on behalf all U.S. Senators presented Senate Resolution 362, with the afternoon hours filled with respectful tributes throughout the U. S. Capitol. The Senate Resolution 362 as is appears in The Congressional Record reads as follows:

S. Res. 362

  • Whereas Coretta Scott King was an inspirational figure and a woman of great strength, grace, and dignity who came to personify the ideals for which her husband fought;
  • Whereas Coretta Scott was born and raised in rural Alabama, graduated as the valedictorian from Lincoln High School, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio;
  • Whereas Coretta Scott fought to be allowed to teach in the local public schools in Ohio but was denied because of her race;
  • Whereas Coretta Scott studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and, while attending school in the City, met a graduate student who was studying for his doctorate degree at Boston University;
  • Whereas that graduate student, Martin Luther King, Jr., told her on their first date, ``The four things that I look for in a wife are character, personality, intelligence, and beauty. And you have them all.;
  • Whereas Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr. were married on June 18, 1953, and moved to Montgomery, Alabama;
  • Whereas Mrs. King gave birth to her first child, Yolanda, 2 weeks before the start of the Montgomery bus boycott, and protected her when opponents of the boycott bombed the King household;
  • Whereas Dr. and Mrs. King were to have 3 more children named Martin Luther, III, Dexter, and Bernice;
  • Whereas during the lifetime of Dr. King, Mrs. King balanced the demands of raising their 4 children, serving as the wife of a pastor, and speaking before church, civic, college, fraternal, and peace groups;
  • Whereas Mrs. King participated in more than 30 ``Freedom Concerts, where she lectured, read poetry, and sang to raise awareness of and money for the civil rights movement;
  • Whereas Mrs. King stood by the side of her husband during many civil rights marches and other notable occasions, including a 1957 trip to Ghana to mark the independence of that country, a 1959 trip to India to visit sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi, and a 1964 trip to Oslo, Norway, to accept a Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr. King;
  • Whereas just 4 days after the assassination of her husband in 1968, Mrs. King led a march of 50,000 people through the streets of Memphis and, later that year, took his place in the Poor People's March to Washington;
  • Whereas Mrs. King devoted her energy to carrying on the message of nonviolence and the work of her husband to create a United States in which all people have equal rights;
  • Whereas Mrs. King dedicated herself to raising funds and developing programs for the Atlanta-based Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, where she served as founding President, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer;
  • Whereas Mrs. King was instrumental in seeing that the birthday of her husband was honored as a Federal holiday, an occasion first marked in 1986;
  • Whereas Mrs. King received honorary doctorates from over 60 colleges and universities, and authored 3 books;
  • Whereas Mrs. King received the congressional gold medal for her invaluable contributions to the United States as a leader of the civil rights movement;
  • Whereas Mrs. King traveled to every corner of the United States and the globe to speak out on behalf of a number of important issues, including racial and economic justice, the rights of women and children, religious freedom, full employment, health care, and education; and
  • Whereas Coretta Scott King was a civil rights icon and one of the most influential African Americans in history: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate-- (1) mourns the loss of Coretta Scott King; (2) admires her lifelong commitment to social justice and peace; (3) recognizes her role as a leading participant in the American Civil Rights Movement and her support to democracy movements world-wide; (4) expresses its sympathies to the family of Coretta Scott king and; (5) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the family of Coretta Scott King.

HOUSE RESOLUTION 655

On January 31, 2006 following a moment of silence in memorian to the death of Mrs. Coretta Scott King, the United States House of Representatives presented House Resolution 655 in honor of Mrs. King's legacy. The remembrances and accolades that followed were both emotional and poignant. Of worthy mention are the words of The Honorable John Lewis (D-Georgia) who stated:

"I first met Mrs. King in 1957 when I was only 17. I was a student in Nashville, Tennessee. She was traveling around America, especially in cities of the South telling the story of the Montgomery movement through song. She was so beautiful, so inspiring, she would sing a little, and she would talk a little, and through her singing and talks she inspired an entire generation."

In an unusal action, the members of this distinguished and esteemed chamber included a grace period of five days in which further comments may be added to the House Resolution 655.

Notes

External links

File:King-coretta-betterworldheroes-com.jpg

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