People, Locations, Episodes

Wed, 04.27.1927

Coretta Scott King, Human Rights Activist born.

*Coretta Scott King was born on this date in 1927. She was a Black human rights activist and author.

From Heiberger, Alabama, Coretta Scott was the daughter of Bernice McMurry Scott, a housewife, and Obadiah Scott, a lumber carrier. Scott grew up walking three miles each day to school while school buses carrying white children drove by her.  Such occurrences, while difficult, led her to strive for equality and the best for herself.  Scott graduated from high school in 1945 and entered Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on a scholarship.

After majoring in Education and Music, Scott became alarmed when she could not teach in a public school because she was Black.  She became involved with American Civil Rights groups and joined the Antioch chapter of the NAACP, the college's Race Relations Committee, and Civil Liberties Committees.  In 1951, she accepted a scholarship to continue her musical training at the New England Conservatory in Boston before finishing her degree at Antioch College.  Upon her arrival in Boston, she met her future husband, Martin Luther King Jr., a young minister studying for his Ph.D. at Boston University.

On June 18, 1953, Martin Luther King Sr. married his son, Martin Luther King Jr., and Coretta Scott. They returned to the South to work on the civil liberties of Black Americans.  By 1964, she was the mother of four children: Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine. She had also become active with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Although usually at her husband's side, she made solo appearances at various civil rights functions that her husband could not attend. She also performed at benefit concerts by lecturing and singing to the audience.  On April 4, 1968, her husband was shot and killed while speaking on a hotel balcony.

She knew that she had to be strong for her children and continue her husband's work. In the years immediately following her husband's death, she remained involved in many things.  In June of 1969, King published her first biography, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., which focused on their relationship, family, civil rights, and activism.  the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change was opened in 1981 in Atlanta.

King has always spoken out for human rights and freedom for all people. Recently, she has become involved in opposition to the death penalty. Although King has lost her husband and mother-in-law to gunmen, she cannot accept the judgment that their killers deserve to be executed. She believes the death penalty continues the cycle of violence and destroys all hope for a decent society. Another of King's passions is the International Peace Movement.  In 1985, she was arrested while protesting the South African Government's policy of racial segregation known as Apartheid.

In 1986, her husband's birthday, January 15, became a national holiday because of her dedication to the acknowledgments of her husband's achievements.  King earned numerous awards over the years for her commitment to activism. One of the more prominent awards was that she was named "Woman of the Year" two times, first in 1960 by the Utility Club of New York City and then again in 1968 by the National Association of Radio and TV announcers.  She also has an award named after her. The Coretta Scott King Award, presented by the American Library Association, is presented annually to a Black author and illustrator for their outstanding inspirational and educational contributions published during the previous year.

King wrote a book about her work in the American Civil Rights Movement and gave many motivational speeches across the country.  In August 2005, King suffered a stroke; she died on January 30, 2006. After her death, a horse-drawn carriage carried the body of Coretta Scott King to Georgia's state Capitol, where she was the first woman and black person to lie in honor.

Civil Rights References