Coretta Scott King - A notable respected woman
Coretta Scott King was a community leader and the wife of assassinated civil rights activist Martin Luther, Jr. She was born in Heiberger, Alabama and graduated top of her class in 1945 from Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama. After graduation, she went on to student concert singing in Boston, where she met Martin Luther, Jr.
Coretta Scott King married Martin Luther, Jr. on June 18, 1953 at her parents house. They had four children: Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott and Bernice Albertine. All of their children also followed in their parents’ footsteps as civil rights activists.
Two weeks before Coretta Scott King had her first child, Rosa Parks was arrested on a bus in Montgomery. This helped spark the modern civil rights movement. It was also at this time that her husband became a major leader of the movement. She put together a series of Freedom Concerts that combined poetry and music to help raise money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She served as a delegate in 1962 for the Women’s Strike for Peace in Geneva, Switzerland.
After her husband was assassinated, Coretta Scott King became very active in preserving her husband’s memory and in political issues. She began attending a service every year to mark the anniversary of her husband’s death and fought extremely hard to make it an American national holiday, which was finally realized in 1986.
During the 1980’s, Coretta Scott King participated in protests in Washington, D.C. that showed her long-standing opposition to apartheid which followed with demonstrations nationwide against racial policies in South Africa.
She was also a long-time advocate for world peace by becoming one of the founders for The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. Coretta Scott King was also very vocal in her opposition to capital punishment and also in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her voice was strong for women’s rights, lesbian and gay rights and the prevention of AIDS/HIV.
Coretta Scott King was hospitalized on August 16, 2005 after suffering heart attack and mild stroke. She was initially unable to speak or move her right side. She was released from the hospital on September 22, 2005 and regained some of her speech. She made her last public appearance on January 14, 2006 at a dinner where she was honoring her husband’s memory. Coretta Scott King died on January 30, 2006. Her cause of death is believed to have been respiratory failure.
There were over 14,000 people in attendance to bid farewell at her six-hour funeral in Georgia on February 7, 2006.