While Coretta Scott King lived her life in the shadow of her husband, civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., her life was an inspiration. She was an activist who took controversial positions that often alienated civil rights leaders.
Coretta Scott King’s legacy:
Coretta Scott King was born in Alabama and died in the exotic locale of Rosarito, Mexico in 2006 at 78 after a series of health problems, including a stroke and a heart attack.
Growing up her family was impoverished but better off than most in Heiberger, Alabama, they owned land and a country store.
King graduated at the top of her high school class in 1945 and studied at Antioch College in Ohio.
When she met MLK Jr., King was studying music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1952. She wanted to be a classical singer.
She rejected MLK’s marriage proposals several times before finally agreeing to be wed.
After marrying MLK, she was equally interested in the civil rights movement and put her education in the arts to use by singing and reciting poetry at Freedom Concerts to raise money for the movement. She participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and fought for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
A vocal supporter of gay rights, King said during a 2004 speech at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, “Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”
King faced criticism for supporting the exoneration of her husband’s convicted assassin, James Earl Ray. Ray initially pleaded guilty to killing King, then recanted.
In 1968, the year following MLK’s assassination, King released a memoir about their marriage - "My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr."
King fought for 15 years to have her husband’s birthday become a national holiday.
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