A Tribute to Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King, worthy wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on 27 April, 1927 in Heiberger, Alabama. She graduated from Lincoln High School and received her B. A. in music and Elementary Education in 1949 from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Later, in 1951, she acquired a Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. At that time, Martin Luther King, Jr., was a doctoral candidate at Boston University’s School of Theology. Their meeting eventually led to marriage in 1953.

Although King was a well known public figure, Coretta King kept herself out of public gaze and devoted much of her time in bringing up her four children. However, she played a key role in most of the civil rights campaigns of 1950’s and 1960’s staying behind the scenes. In 1965, when Martin Luther King, Jr., won the Nobel Peace Prize and delivered a masterly speech of acceptance, she was with him.

During the black freedom struggle in U.S. Coretta participated in “freedom concerts” consisting of poetry recitation, songs and lectures based on the genesis and development of the civil rights movements. She would donate the proceeds from these concerts to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Coretta visited Ghana in 1957 and India, her husband’s favourite country, with him. She also accompanied him during the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. This march was important because it had led to the passage of historic “Voting rights legislation.” She showed keen interest in disarmament and in this connection she visited Geneva and Switzerland as a Women’s Strike for Peace delegate to the seventeen-nation Disarmament Conference.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on 4 April, 1964. After his death, Coretta played a more vigorous role by taking up the onerous task of spreading his message of Gandhian non-violence. She worked with a missionary zeal to preserve and promote the legacy left by her illustrious husband. She mobilized support for “Martin Luther king, Jr., Centre for Non Violent Social Change.” This would include an Exhibition Hall, restoration of King’s childhood home, an Institute for Afro-American Studies, a library containing King’s papers and a Museum.

1970’s and 80’s were full of social activity for Coretta. She spoke in public meetings and wrote for nationally syndicated columns. In 1983, her efforts brought more than half million people to Washington, D.C., at the historic place where King delivered his most celebrated speech on 28 August, 1963, “I have a Dream.” This was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” Her efforts in 1984 to establish a national holiday in honour of King became fruitful and the annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day commenced in January 1986.

Coretta’s life was a saga of struggle and suffering. She spearheaded the movements of social activism and participated in several Women’s organizations like the National Organization for Women, the Women’s International League for Peace and Church Women United. She championed the cause of racial and economic justice and religious freedom. As a committed social worker she devoted much of her life for restoring dignity and rights for women, children and the differently abled.

Coretta died on 31 January, 2006, at the age of 78. Till the end, she lent her unflinching support to non-violent freedom struggles and carried on her husband’s mission with commitment and conviction.