Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 - January 30, 2006) is an American writer, activist, civil rights leader, and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. Coretta Scott King helped lead the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. He is an active advocate for African-American equality. The king met her husband in college. They both became increasingly active in the American Civil Rights Movement. He is also an accomplished singer, and often incorporates music into his civil rights work.
The king played a pivotal role in the years following the murder of her husband in 1968 when she took the leadership of the struggle for her equality of race and became active in the Women's Movement. King founded the King Center and tried to make his birthday a national holiday. He finally succeeded when Ronald Reagan signed a law established by Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on November 2, 1983. He then expanded his scope to include both opposition to apartheid and advocacy for LGBT rights. King befriends many politicians before and after Martin Luther King's death, especially John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy. His telephone conversation with John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential election has been credited by historians to mobilize African-American voters.
In August 2005, King suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right side and made him unable to speak; five months later he died of respiratory failure due to complications from ovarian cancer. His funeral was attended by about 10,000 people, including four of the five surviving US presidents. She was buried while on King Center soil until buried next to her husband. He was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame and was the first African American to reside in Georgia State Capitol. The King has been called the "First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement".
Video Coretta Scott King
Childhood and education
Coretta Scott was born in Marion, Alabama, the third child of four children Obadiah Scott (1899-1998) and Bernice McMurry Scott (1904-1996). He was born in his parents' home with his ancestors, Delia Scott, a former slave, who presided as a midwife. Coretta's mother was known for her musical talent and her voice. As a child, Bernice attends local Crossroads School and has only fourth grade education. The older brothers Bernice, however, attended a boarding school at the Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington that was founded. Mrs Scott senior works as a school bus driver, a church pianist, and for her husband in his business venture. He serves as Worthy Matron for his Eastern Star chapter and is a member of the local Literacy Collage Club.
Obie, Coretta's father, was one of the first blacks in their city to own a vehicle. Before starting his own business, he worked as a cop. Together with his wife, he opened a clothing store away from their home and then opened a general store. He also owned a wood factory, which was burned by white neighbors after Scott refused to lend his crazy to a white man. His maternal grandparents were Mollie (nÃÆ' Â © e Smith, 1868 - d.) And Martin van Buren McMurry (1863-1950) - both African American and Irish. Mollie was born as a slave to plantation owners Jim Blackburn and Adeline (Blackburn) Smith. The maternal grandfather of Coretta, Martin, was born to a slave of the Black Native American ancestor, and his white master never acknowledged Martin as his son. He eventually has an area of ​​280 hectares. Because of its diverse origins, Martin appears to be White. However, he displays an insult to the idea of ​​passing. As a self-taught reader with a little formal education, he is famous for having inspired Coretta's passion for education. Coretta's father and grandmother were Cora (nÃÆ' Â © e McLaughlin; 1876 - 1920) and Jefferson F. Scott (1873-1941). Cora died before the birth of Coretta. Jeff Scott is a farmer and a prominent figure in the rural black religious community; he was born to former Willis and Delia Scott slaves.
At the age of 10, Coretta works to increase family income. He has a sister named Edythe Scott Bagley (1924-2011) a sister named Eunice who does not survive, and a younger brother named Obadiah Leonard (1930-2012). According to DNA analysis, he was partly from the Mende people in Sierra Leone. Scott's family has owned the farm since the American Civil War, but not too rich. During the Great Depression, Scott's children picked cotton to help make money and share a room with their parents. At the age of 12, Coretta Scott entered Lincoln School as a seventh grader, and with a change of temperament. Scott also developed an interest in the opposite sex.
Coretta describes herself as a tomboy during her childhood, mainly because she can climb trees and summon wrestling children. In addition, he also mentions it has been stronger than a male cousin and threatened before accidentally cutting off the same cousin with an ax. His mother threatened him, and along with the words of his brothers, encouraged him to become more polite as he got older. He saw irony in the fact that despite this initial physical activity, he was still involved in nonviolent movements. His brother Obadiah thinks he is always "trying to excel in everything he does." His brother, Edythe, believes that his personality is like their grandmother Cora McLaughlin Scott, after whom he was named. Although less formal education, Coretta Scott's parents intend that all their children be educated. Coretta quotes his mother saying, "My kids are going to college, even if it means I have only one dress to wear."
Scott's children attended a 5-mile (8 km) one-room primary school from their home and then bussed into the Lincoln Normal School, which, although 9 miles (14 km) from their home, was the closest high school in Marion, Alabama, because of racial segregation in schools. The bus was steered by Coretta's mother, Bernice, who offended all the local black teens. By the time Scott enters school, Lincoln has suspended tuition and is only billed four dollars and fifty cents a year. In the last two years there, Scott became the leading soprano for the senior choir of the school. Scott leads a choir at his home church in North Perry Country. Coretta Scott passed a farewell speech from Lincoln Normal School in 1945, where he played trumpets and pianos, sang in chorus, and participated in school musicals and enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio during his senior year at Lincoln. Upon his admission to Antioch, he applied for the Inter-rural Assistance Fund for financial aid. During the last two years of high school, Coretta lives with his parents. Her sister Edythe had attended Antioch as part of the Interracial Educational Antioch Program, which recruited non-white students and gave them a full scholarship in an effort to diversify a historically white campus. Coretta said about his first lecture:
Antioch has imagined itself to be a laboratory in democracy but has no black students. (Edythe) became the first African American to attend fully integrated Antioch, and joined two other black female students in the fall of 1943. The pioneers have never been easy, and all of us who follow my sister in Antioch owe her. big thank you debt.
Coretta studied music with Walter Anderson, the first non-white chairman of the academic department at a historic white college. He also became politically active, mainly because of his experience of racial discrimination by local school boards. He became active in the nascent civil rights movement; he joined the Antioch Chamber of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the College of Civil Relations and Liberties Committee. The council rejected his request to undertake a second year of practical teaching required at the Yellow Springs public school, for his teaching certificate Coretta Scott appealed to the administration of Antioch College, who was unwilling or unable to change the situation in the local school system and instead hired him in a college-related laboratory school for the second year. In addition, around this time, Coretta worked as a babysitter for the Lithgow family, caring for the then famous actor John Lithgow.
Maps Coretta Scott King
New England Music Conservatory and Martin Luther King Jr.
Coretta was transferred from Antioch when he won a scholarship to the New England Music Conservatory in Boston. While learning to sing at the school with Marie Sundelius, she meets Martin Luther King Jr. after his teammate Mary Powell gave his phone number to the King after he asked about the girls on campus. Coretta was the only one left after Powell named two girls and the King proved unimpressed with the others. Initially, Scott showed little interest to meet him, even after Powell told him that he had a promising future, but eventually surrendered and agreed to the meeting. King called him on the phone and when the two met face-to-face, Scott was surprised by how short he was. King will tell him that he has all the qualities he's looking for in a wife, who Scott fired as the two have just met. She told him, "I do not understand how you can say that.You do not even know me." But the King was reassured and asked to see him again. She is ready to accept her invitation to a weekend party.
He continued to meet him regularly in the early months of 1952. Two weeks after meeting Scott, King wrote to his mother that he had met his wife. Their dates usually consisted of political and racial discussions, and in August of that year Coretta met the parents of King Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Before meeting Martin, Coretta had been in touch with him all the time at school but there was never anything he cared for to develop. After meeting his sister, Edythe face to face, Coretta detailed her feelings to the aspiring young minister and discussed the relationship as well. Edythe can say that his sister has legitimate feelings for her, and she also becomes impressed with her overall attitude.
Despite imagining a career for himself in the music industry, Coretta knows that it would not be possible if he married Martin Luther King. However, since King has many qualities that he loves in a man, he finds himself "becoming more involved with every moment that passes." When asked by his sister what made the King so "interesting" he replied, "I think it's because Martin reminds me so much about our father." At that time, Scott's sister knew that King was "the man."
King's parents visit him in the fall and have suspicions about Coretta Scott after seeing how clean his apartment is. While the Kings have tea and food with their sons and Scott, Martin Sr. turned his attention to him and insinuated that his plans for a career in music were not suitable for the Baptist pastor's wife. After Coretta did not respond to her question about their serious romance, Martin Sr. asked if he took his son "seriously". The King's father also told him that there were many other women whose sons were interested and "a lot of things were offered." After telling him that he has "much to offer" as well, Martin Luther King Sr. and his wife went on to try and meet the Coretta family members. Once they get Edythe's number from Coretta, they sit with him and have lunch with him. During their time together, Martin Luther King Sr. trying to ask Edythe about the relationship between his sister and his son. Edythe insisted that his sister was a very good choice for Martin Luther King Jr., but also felt that Coretta did not have to bid for a husband.
On Valentine's Day 1953, the couple announced their plans to marry at the Atlanta Daily World. With the wedding set in June, just four months later, Coretta still has no commitment to marry the King and consult his sister in a letter sent before Easter. The King's father had expressed his resentment in choosing Coretta over someone from Alabama and accused his son of spending too much time with him and neglecting his studies. Martin took his mother to another room and told him of his plans to marry Coretta and tell him the same thing when he drove him home while also berating him for not making a good impression on his father. When Martin declared his intention to get a doctorate and marry Coretta afterwards, Martin Sr. finally gave his blessing. In 1964, the time profile of Martin Luther King Jr., when he was elected as Man of the Year, referred to him as "a talented young soprano." is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. married on June 18, 1953, at his mother's yard; ceremony performed by Martin Jr.'s father, Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta has a vow to obey her husband removed from the ceremony, which is unusual for the time being. After completing a degree in sound and piano at the New England Conservatory, he moved with her husband to Montgomery, Alabama, in September 1954. Ny. King recalled: "After we got married, we moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where my husband accepted an invitation to become pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, shortly afterwards, we were in the middle of a Montgomery bus boycott, and Martin was elected leader of the protest movement , engaging in something far greater than me, something very important in history.I came to the realization that we had been pushed into the forefront of the movement to liberate the oppressed, not only in Montgomery but also throughout our country, and this movement has implications around the world I feel blessed to have been called to be part of such a noble and historic reason. "
Civil Rights Movement
On September 1, 1954, Martin Luther King Jr. a full-time pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. It was a sacrifice for Coretta, who had to give up her dream of becoming a classic singer. His devotion to the goal while succumbing to his own ambition would be a symbol of the actions of African American women during the movement. The couple moved to a church pastor on South Jackson Street shortly after this. Coretta became a choir member and taught Sunday school, and participated in the Baptist Training Association and Missionary Society. He made his first appearance at First Baptist Church on March 6, 1955, where, according to E. P. Wallace, he "captivated his concert audience."
The Kings welcomed their first child Yolanda on November 17, 1955, named after Coretta's insistence and the church's concern. After her husband was involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King often received threats directed against him. In January 1956, King answered many phone calls threatening his husband's life, because rumors intended to make African Americans dissatisfied with King's husband spread that Martin had bought a Buick station train for him. Martin Luther King Jr. would give him the nickname "Yoki," and thus, let himself refer to him from his name. At the end of the boycott, Ny. King and her husband began to believe in nonviolent protests as a way of expression consistent with biblical teaching. Two days after the integration of the Montgomery bus service, on December 23, a shot was heard at the front door of the King's house while the King, her husband, and Yolanda fell asleep. All three are not harmed. On Christmas Eve 1955, the King took his daughter to her parents' house and met with her brothers as well. Yolanda is their first grandchild. The King's husband joined them the next day, at dinner.
On February 21, 1956, King's husband announced he would return to Montgomery after taking Coretta and their daughter from Atlanta, who lives with his parents. During the opposition of Martin Luther King Sr. against his son's choice to return to Montgomery, Ny. King picks up his daughter and goes upstairs, which she will reveal later and tells her that she's "run out of him." Two days later, Coretta and her husband returned to Montgomery. Coretta takes an active role in advocating for civil rights legislation. On April 25, 1958, King made his first appearance at the concert that year at the Peter High School Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama. With a performance sponsored by Omicron Lambda's chapter from the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, King changed some of the songs in the first part of the show but still continued with the basic format used two years earlier in New York gala as he told the story of Montgomery Bus Boycott. The concert was important for Coretta as a way to continue her professional career and participate in this movement. The concert gave the audience "an emotional connection with a message of social, economic, and spiritual transformation."
On September 3, 1958, the King accompanied her husband and Ralph Abernathy to the courtroom. Her husband was arrested outside the courtroom for "wandering" and "failing to obey an officer." A few weeks later, King visited Martin's parents in Atlanta. At that moment, he learned that he had been stabbed when he signed a copy of his book String Toward Freedom on September 20, 1958. The king rushed to meet her husband, and stayed with him for the rest of his time. at the hospital recovered. On February 3, 1959, the King, her husband, and Lawrence Reddick embarked on a five-week tour of India. All three were invited to hundreds of engagements. During their journey, Coretta used her singing abilities to attract crowds during the months they lived. Both returned to the United States on March 10, 1959.
House bombing
On January 30, 1956, Coretta and members of the Dexter trial, Roscoe Williams's wife Mary Lucy heard "the sound of bricks hit the concrete floor from the front porch." Coretta advised the two women to come out of the hall and into the living room, because the house was disturbed by the explosion that caused the house to sway and fill the vestibule with broken smoke and glass. The two went to the back of the house, where Yolanda was sleeping and Coretta called the First Baptist Church and reported the bombing to the woman who answered the phone. Martin returns to their home, and after finding Coretta and his daughter unscathed, gets out. He was confronted by a crowd of angry supporters, who were carrying weapons. He was able to drive them away with spontaneous speech.
A white man was reported by the only witness who walked in the middle to King's door and threw something to the door before running back to his car and speeding off. Ernest Walters, the only witness, did not get the license plate because of how quickly it happened. Both the couple's dads contacted them for the bombing. Both arrive almost at the same time, along with her husband's mother and brother. Coretta's father, Obie, says he will take him and his daughter back to Marion if his son-in-law did not take them to Atlanta. Coretta refused the proclamation and insisted on staying with her husband. Although Martin Luther King Sr. also suggested that he go with his father, King still go with him. Octavia B. Vivian writes, "That night Coretta lost her fear of death, and she surrendered herself more deeply to the freedom struggle, as Martin did four days before when he was imprisoned for the first time in his life." Coretta would then call it the first time he realized "how much I meant Martin in terms of supporting him in what he did".
John F. Kennedy's phone calls
Martin Luther King was imprisoned on October 19, 1960, for precautions at a department store. After being released three days later, Coretta's husband was sent back to prison on October 22 for driving with an Alabama license while being a resident of Georgia and sent to jail for four months of forced labor. After her husband's arrest, King was sure he would not make it out alive and called his friend Harris Wofford and cried saying "They'll kill him I know they'll kill him." Immediately after speaking with him, Wofford contacted Sargent Shriver in Chicago, where presidential candidate John F. Kennedy campaigned at the time and told Shriver of King's fear for her husband. After Shriver waited to be with Kennedy alone, he suggested that he call King and express sympathy. Kennedy called King, after agreeing to the proposal.
Some time later, Bobby Kennedy gets the King's release from prison. Martin Luther King Sr. very grateful for his release that he chose Kennedy and said: "I will take the Catholic or the devil himself if he will wipe the tears from my daughter-in-law's eyes." According to Coretta, Kennedy said, "I want to express my concerns about your husband I know this must be very hard for you I understand you are expecting a baby, and I just want you to know that I think of you and Dr." King. If there is anything I can do, please contact me. "Kennedy's contact with King was quickly learned by reporters, with Coretta acknowledging that" it made me feel good that he called me personally and told me how he felt. "
The Kennedy Presidency
During Kennedy's presidency, he and her husband came to respect him and understand his reluctance to engage publicly with civil rights. In April 1962, Coretta served as a delegate to the Women's Stake for Peace Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Martin drove him to the hospital on March 28, 1963, where the King gave birth to their fourth child, Bernice. After the King and his daughter arrived home, Martin hurried back to escort them himself. After the arrest of her husband on April 12, 1963, King tried to make direct contact with President Kennedy on the advice of Wyatt Tee Walker and managed to speak with Robert F. Kennedy. President Kennedy with his father Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who is not feeling well. In what has been recorded as making Kennedy appear less sympathetic to kings, the president directs the call of Ny. King to the White House switchboard.
The next day, President Kennedy reported to the King that the FBI had been sent to Birmingham the night before and confirmed that her husband was fine. She is allowed to talk to him on the phone and tells him to inform the Walker of Kennedy's involvement. She told her husband about her help from the Kennedys, whom her husband took as an excuse "why everyone is suddenly so polite." Regarding March in Washington, Coretta said, "It's as if heaven has come down." Coretta had returned home all day with their children, since the birth of their daughter, Bernice, would not allow her to attend Easter Sunday services. Since Mrs King has issued her own statement about presidential assistance rather than doing as her husband said and reporting to Wyatt Walker, this is according to writer Taylor Branch, making her described by the report as "an anxious new mother who may have confused White House fantasies with reality."
Coretta went to the Rally of Strike for Peace in New York, in the early days of November 1963. After speaking at a meeting held at the National Baptist Church, the King joined the parade from Central Park to UN Headquarters. The parade was commemorated to celebrate the group's second anniversary and celebrate the success of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Coretta and Martin knew of the killing of John F. Kennedy when his initial report showed he was only seriously injured. The king joins her husband upstairs and watches Walter Cronkite announce the president's death. King sits with her husband who looks shaken after confirmation.
FBI tapes
The FBI plans to send a recording of her husband's allegations to the office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference since the reconnaissance revealed that Coretta opened her husband's letter when she traveled. The FBI knows that the King will come out of the office when the tape is sent and that his wife will be the one who opens it. J. Edgar Hoover even suggested to send "it from the southern state." Coretta sorted the tapes with the rest of the mail, listened to her, and immediately called her husband, "giving the Bureau much pleasure with the tone and tone of his reaction." King played the tape in front of him, along with Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy and Joseph Lowery. Openly, Ny. King would say, "I can not spend a lot of money, it's just nonsense." The tape was part of a larger effort by J. Edgar Hoover to condemn the King through revelation in his personal life.
Johnson Presidency
Most prominent, perhaps, he worked hard to get through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The king spoke to Malcolm X the day before his assassination. Malcolm X told her that she was not in Alabama to make trouble for her husband, but instead to make white people more appreciate King's protest, looking at the alternatives. On March 26, 1965, the King's father joined him and her husband for the rally which would then end up in Montgomery. His father "caught a glimpse of America's real potential" and called it "the greatest day in all American history" after seeing the song for her daughter's husband by white and African Americans.
Coretta Scott King criticized the sexism of the Civil Rights Movement in January 1966 in New Lady magazine, saying in part, "Insufficient attention has been focused on the role that women play in the struggle.In general, men have formed leadership in the civil rights struggle but... women have been the backbone of the entire civil rights movement. "Martin Luther King Jr. himself limiting Coretta's role in the movement, and expecting him to be a housewife. King participated in the Women Strike protest for Peace in January 1968, in the capital city of Washington, D.C. with more than five thousand women. In honor of the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, the group is called Jeannette Rankin Brigade. Coretta chaired the Women's Congress conference with Pearl Willen and Mary Clarke.
Husband's murder
Martin Luther King Jr. shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. He learned of the shooting after being summoned by Jesse Jackson when he returned from shopping with Yolanda, his eldest son. The king had difficulty taking care of his children with the news that their father had died. He received many telegrams, including one from Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, whom she regarded as one of the most touching of hearts.
In an effort to prepare his daughter, the five-year-old Bernice, to attend the funeral, he tries to explain to him that when he sees his father, he will be in the coffin and will not speak. When asked by his son, Dexter when his father would return, King lied and told him that his father was only badly injured. Senator Robert Kennedy ordered three more phones to be installed at the King's residence so that the King and his family could respond to the flood of calls they had received and to offer the plane to transport them to Memphis. Coretta spoke to Kennedy the day after the murder and asked if he could persuade Jacqueline Kennedy to attend her husband's funeral with him.
Robert Kennedy promised him that he would help "in any way" that he could. The king was told not to go ahead and approve Kennedy's offer by members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who told him about his presidential ambitions. He ignored the warning and followed his request. On April 5, 1968, the King arrived in Memphis to retrieve the body of her husband and decided that the coffin should remain open during the funeral in the hope that her children would be conscious after seeing her body that she would not return. Mrs. King called photographer Bob Fitch and asked for documentation to do, having known him for years. On April 7, 1968, former Vice President Richard Nixon visited Ny. King and recalled his first encounter with her husband in 1955. Nixon also went to the King's mother's funeral on April 9, 1968, but did not walk in the procession. Nixon believes that participating in the procession is "chestnut".
On April 8, 1968, Ny. King and his children marched with the sanitation workers planned to be performed by her husband before her death. After the protesters reached the staging area at the Civic Center Plaza in front of Memphis City Hall, the audience began to take pictures of the King and his children but stopped when he spoke to everyone in a microphone. He said that although Martin Luther King Jr. was away from his children, "his children know that Father loves him, and the time he spends with them is well spent." Before Martin's funeral, Jacqueline Kennedy met him. The two spent five minutes together and despite the short visit, Coretta called it entertaining. King's parents arrive from Alabama. Robert Kennedy and his wife Ethel came, the last one embraced by Mrs King. Mrs. King and his brother-in-law Christine King Farris tried to prepare the children to see Martin's body. With the end of the funeral service, Ny. King led his children and his mourners in a parade from the church to Morehouse College, his late husband's alma mater.
Initial maturity
Two days after the death of her husband, the King spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church and made her first statement about her views since she died. She says that her husband is telling their children, "If a man does not have anything worth dying for, then he is not worthy to live." He magnifies his idealism and the fact that he may die, but concludes that "his soul will never die." Not long after the murder, Coretta took his place at a peaceful rally in New York City. Using the notes he had written before his death, King built his own speech. Coretta approached the entertainer and African-American activist Josephine Baker to take her husband's place as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Baker refused after thinking about it, claiming that his twelve adopted sons (known as "rainbow tribes") "were too young to lose their mother". Shortly after that Ny. King decided to take control of the movement itself.
Coretta Scott King eventually expanded its focus to include women's rights, LGBT rights, economic issues, world peace, and other causes. In early December 1968, he asked women to "unite and form a powerful bloc of women power against three major crimes of racism, poverty and war" during the Solidarity Day speech. On April 27, 1968, the King spoke at an anti-war demonstration in Central Park in exchange for her husband. King insists that there is no reason "why a nation as rich as we should be undone by poverty, disease, and illiteracy." King uses notes taken from his husband's pocket after his death, which includes "The Ten Commandments in Vietnam." On 5 June 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot after winning a California primary for a Democratic nomination for President of the United States. After he died the next day, Ethel Kennedy, whom the King had talked to her husband just two months earlier, became a widow. King flew to Los Angeles to cheer Ethel over Bobby's death. On June 8, 1968, when the King attended the senator's funeral, the Justice Department announced the arrest of James Earl Ray.
Not long after this, the King's household was visited by Mike Wallace, who wanted to visit him and other members of his family and see how they became fair when Christmas came. He introduced his family to Wallace and also expressed his belief that there would be no other Martin Luther King Jr because he came around "once in a century" or "probably once in a thousand years". She continues that she believes her children need her more than ever and that there is hope for redemption in the death of her husband. In January 1969, King and Bernita Bennette went on a trip to India. Before arriving in the country, the two stopped in Verona, Italy, and King was awarded the Universal Love Award. The King became the first non-Italian to receive the award. The king went to London with his sister, his sister-in-law, Bernita and several others to preach at St. Anthony's Cathedral. Paul. Previously, no woman ever delivered a sermon at regularly-appointed services in the cathedral.
As the leader of the movement, Ny. King founded Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. He served as president and CEO of the center from the beginning until he passed leadership control to Dexter Scott King's son. Eliminating him from leadership, allowing him to focus on writing, public speaking, and spending time with his parents.
He published his memoirs, My life with Martin Luther King, Jr. , in 1969. President Richard Nixon was advised not to visit him on the first anniversary of his death because it would "infuriate" many people.
Coretta Scott King was also under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1968 to 1972. Her husband's activities have been monitored throughout his lifetime. Documents obtained by Houston, Texas television stations indicate that the FBI is worried that Coretta Scott King will "bind the anti-Vietnam movement with the civil rights movement." The FBI studied his memoirs and concluded that his "unselfish, benevolent attitude, was denied by his shrewd, calculating and practical activities." A spokesman for the King's family said that they were aware of the oversight, but did not realize how vast it was.
Next life
Every year after the killing of her husband in 1968, Coretta attended a memorial service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark her birthday on January 15th. He fought for years to make it a national holiday. In 1972, he said that there should be at least one national holiday a year in honor of an African-American man, "and, at this point, Martin is the best candidate we have." Murray M. Silver, an Atlanta lawyer, made a call in the service on January 14, 1979. Coretta Scott King later confirmed that it was "... the best, most productive attraction ever..." Coretta Scott King finally succeeded in the campaign this was in 1986, when Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was made a federal holiday.
After the death of J. Edgar Hoover, King did not try to hide his bitterness for him because of his work against her husband in a long statement. Coretta Scott King attended the state funeral of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973, as a close friend of the former president. On July 25, 1978, King held a press conference to defend Ambassador Andrew Young and his controversial remarks on political prisoners in American jails. On September 19, 1979, Ny. King visited the Lyndon B. Johnson farm to meet Lady Bird Johnson. In 1979 and 1980, Dr. Noel Erskine and Mrs. King teaches the class about "Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr." at Candler School of Theology (Emory University). On September 29, 1980, King's signing as a CNN commentator was announced by Ted Turner.
On August 26, 1983, the King hated Jesse Jackson as president, because he wanted to support someone he believed could defeat Ronald Reagan, and sacked her husband to become a presidential candidate if he lived. On June 26, 1985, the King was arrested with his daughter Bernice and son of Martin Luther King III while taking part in anti-apartheid protests at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.
When President Ronald Reagan signed a law establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he was at the event. Reagan called him to personally apologize for a statement he made during a national television conference, where he said we would know in "35 years" whether the King was a communist sympathizer or not. Reagan explained his statement stemming from the fact that the letters had been sealed until 2027. The king accepted an apology and showed the Senate Select Committee on Murder found no basis for suggesting her husband had communist ties. On February 9, 1987, eight civil rights activists were jailed for protesting the exclusion of African Americans during the filming of The Oprah Winfrey Show in Cumming, Georgia. Oprah Winfrey is trying to figure out why "people have not allowed blacks to live there since 1912." King was angry over the arrest, and wanted members of the group, "Coalition to End Fear and Intimidation in Forsyth County," to meet Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris to "seek a fair settlement." On March 8, 1989, King lectured hundreds of students about the civil rights movement at San Diego University. King tried not to get involved in the controversy surrounding the naming of the San Diego Convention Center after her husband. He maintains it's up to "people in the community" and that people have tried to get him involved with "such local situations."
On January 17, 1993, King pointed out an insult to a US missile strike against Iraq. In retaliation, he suggested peaceful protests. On February 16, 1993, King went to the FBI Headquarters and gave an approve address to Director William S. Session because the FBI "turned to Hoover era misuse." King praised Session for "his leadership bringing women and minorities to the FBI and becoming a true friend of civil rights." King admitted that he would not accept the arrangement if it were not for Session, the current director. On January 17, 1994, the day marking the 65th anniversary of her husband, the King said, "No injustice, no matter how great, can forgive even one act of violence against another." In January 1995, Qabilah Shabazz was indicted on charges of using the phone and crossing the country line in a plot to kill Louis Farrakhan. King defended him, telling at Riverside Church in Harlem that federal prosecutors targeted him to tarnish the legacy of his father Malcolm X. During the fall of 1995, King led an effort to register one million African American female voters for next year's presidential election with fellow Betty Shabazz and Myrlie Evers widows and was honored by his daughter Yolanda in the Washington hotel ballroom. On October 12, 1995, King spoke of the murder case of O. J. Simpson, which he negates has a long-term effect on racial relations when speaking with an audience at Soka University in Calabasas. On January 24, 1996, King delivered a 40-minute speech on the Lake Shore campus of Loyola University at Rogers Park. He called on everyone to "take the torch of liberty and lead America toward another great revolution." On June 1, 1997, Betty Shabazz suffered extensive and life-threatening burns after his granddaughter Malcolm Shabazz started a fire at their home. Responding to her old friend's hospitalization, Mrs King donated $ 5,000 for her rehabilitation fund. Shabazz died on June 23, 1997, three weeks after being burned.
During the 1990s, King became the target of many burglaries and met with Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace, a man who confessed to killing women in the area. She walks into the house in the middle of the night and finds her while she is sitting in her bed. After nearly eight years of staying home after the meeting, the King moved into a condominium unit that also houses, albeit part-time, for singers Elton John and Janet Jackson. In 1999, the King's family finally managed to get a jury verdict saying that her husband was the victim of a murderous conspiracy after suing Loyd Jowers, who claimed six years before paying someone other than James Earl Ray to kill her husband. On April 4, 2000, the King visited the grave of her husband with her sons, Bernice and sister-in-law. Regarding plans to build a monument for her husband in Washington, DC, King said it would "complete a group of warnings in the nation's capital to honor the greatest democratic leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and now Martin Luther King, Jr." vegan in the last 10 years of his life.
Opposition to apartheid
During the 1980s, Coretta Scott King reaffirmed his long-term opposition to apartheid, participating in a series of protests in Washington, D.C. which prompted a national demonstration against South Africa's racial policies.
The king traveled 10 days to South Africa in September 1986. On September 9, 1986, he canceled the meeting of President P. W. Botha and Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi. The next day, he meets Allan Boesak. The UDF, Boesak and Winnie Mandela leaders have threatened to avoid meeting the King if he meets Botha and Buthelezi. He also met with Mandela that day, and called it "one of the greatest and most meaningful moments of my life." Mandela's husband was still imprisoned in Pollsmoor Jail after being transferred from Robben Island in 1982. Before leaving the United States for the meeting, the King drew a comparison between the civil rights movement and the Mandela case. After returning to the United States, he urged Reagan to approve economic sanctions against South Africa.
Peacemaking
Coretta Scott King is a long-term peace advocate for the world. Author Michael Eric Dyson has called him "an earlier and more devoted pacifist than her husband." Although Mrs King would object to the term "pacifism"; he was an advocate of non-violent direct action to achieve social change. In 1957, Ny. King is one of the founders of Sane's Nuclear Policy Committee (now called the Peace Action), and he speaks in San Francisco while her husband speaks in New York in an anti-Vietnam war march on April 15. , 1967 organized by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.
Mrs. King is vowel in opposition to the death penalty and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
LGBT equivalence
Coretta Scott King is an early supporter in the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights. In August 1983 in Washington, D.C., he urged amendments to the Civil Rights Act to include gays and lesbians as protected classes.
Responding to the 1986 Supreme Court ruling at Bowers v. Hardwick that there is no constitutional right to engage in consensual sodomy, King's old friend Winston Johnson of Atlanta came to him and was instrumental in organizing King as the keynote speaker on September 27, 1986 New York Gala from the Human Rights Campaign Fund. As reported in the New York Native , the King stated that he was there to express his solidarity with gay and lesbian movements. He praised gays and lesbians as "always a part of the civil rights movement."
On April 1, 1998, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Ny. King invites civil rights communities to join the struggle against homophobia and anti-gay bias. "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to undermine a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and their personality," he said. "This sets the stage for further widespread oppression and violence that spread very easily to become victims of the next minority."
On March 31, 1998, at the 25th birthday party for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, King said, "I still hear people say that I should not talk about lesbian rights and gay people and I must remains on the issue of racial justice.... But I quickly reminded them that Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'... I appeal to all those who believe in the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. to make room at the table of brotherhood and fraternity for lesbian and gay people. "On November 9, 2000, he repeated the same comment during the opening plenary session The 13th Anniversary Conference, organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
In 2003, he invited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to take part in March 40th anniversary celebrations in Washington and Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream. This is the first time that LGBT rights groups have been invited to a major African American community event.
King Center
Founded in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, The King Center is an official memorial dedicated to the advancement of Martin Luther King Jr.'s heritage and ideas, the leader of the nonviolent movement for justice, equality and peace. Two days after the funeral of her husband, the King began planning $ 15 million to fund the funeral. He gave up control as CEO and president of the King's Center to his son, Dexter Scott King. The Kings initially had trouble collecting newspapers because they were in different locations, including the colleges he attended and the archives. The king had a group of supporters beginning to collect his husband's papers in 1967, the year before his death. After raising funds from the private sector and the government, he financed the construction of the complex in 1981.
In 1984, she was criticized by Hosea Williams, one of her earliest adherents, for using the King Center to promote "authentic material" to her husband's dreams and ideals, and disqualifying the merchandise as an attempt to exploit her husband. He sanctioned the kit, which contained wall posters, five pictures of the King and his family, a tape from I Have a Dream, a booklet containing tips on how to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.. Day and five postcards with quotes from King himself. She believes it to be an authentic way to celebrate the holiday honoring her husband, and denies Hosea's claim.
King sued her husband's alma mater at Boston University about who will store over 83,000 documents in December 1987 and says the documents belong to the King's archives. However, her husband is firmly held by the university; he stated after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 that his letters would be kept on campus. Coretta's lawyers argued that the statement was not binding and mentioned that the King did not leave a will at the time of his death. King testified that Boston University President John R. Silber at a meeting in 1985 demanded that he send all of her husband's documents to the university, not vice versa. King released the statement, "Dr. King wants the southern part to be the repository of most of his papers.Now the King Center library and archives are complete and have one of the best collections of civil rights around the world, time for paper to be returned home."
On January 17, 1992, President George H. W. Bush laid a wreath on the grave of her husband and met with and was greeted by Ny. King at its center. King praised Bush's support for the holidays, and joined hands with him at the end of the ceremony and sang "We Shall Overcome." On 6 May 1993, a court denied his claim to the letters after finding that the 16 July 1964 letter King's husband had written to the institute was a binding charity pledge for the university and openly declared that Martin Luther King retained possession of his letters. to give them to the university as a gift or death. King, however, says that her husband has changed his mind about allowing Boston University to keep his letters. After his son Dexter took over as King Center president for the second time in 1994, the King was given more time to write, solve problems and spend time with his parents.
Disease and death
At the end of the 77th year, Coretta began to experience health problems. Her ex-husband's secretary, Dora McDonald, helped her part-time in this period. Taking care of the hospital in April 2005, a month after speaking at Selma on the 40th anniversary of the Selma Select Rights Movement, she was diagnosed with heart disease and released on her 78th and final birthday. Later, she suffered several small strokes. On August 16, 2005, she was hospitalized after suffering a stroke and a mild heart attack. Initially, he could not speak or move his right side. The King's daughter, Bernice, reported that she was able to move her legs on Sunday, August 21, while her other daughter and Yolanda's eldest son confirmed that the family expected her to fully recover. He was released from Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on September 22, 2005, after regaining some of his speeches and continuing physiotherapy at home. Due to ongoing health problems, Ny. King canceled a number of speech and travel arrangements for the remainder of 2005. On January 14, 2006, Coretta made her last public appearance in Atlanta at a banquet to honor her husband's memory. On January 26, 2006, King entered the rehab center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico under a different name. The doctor did not study his real identity until his medical record arrived the next day, and did not start treatment because of his condition.
Coretta Scott King died late on January 30, 2006, at a rehab center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at Oasis Hospital where he underwent holistic therapy for strokes and advanced ovarian cancer. The main cause of death is believed to be respiratory failure due to complications of ovarian cancer. The clinic where he died was called the Santa Monica Hospital, but was licensed as Clinica Santo Tomas. After reports indicated that it was not legally valid to "perform the operation, take X-rays, do laboratory work or run an internal pharmacy, all of which do," and the report is operated by a highly controversial medical figure, Kurt. Donsbach, it was closed by medical commissioner Dr. Francisco Versa. The King's body was flown from Mexico to Atlanta on February 1, 2006.
King's eight-hour funeral at Birth Baptist Church Born in Lithonia, Georgia was held on February 7, 2006. Bernice King delivered a speech. US President George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter attended, as did their wives, with the exception of former First Lady Barbara Bush who had an earlier engagement. The Ford family was absent because of the illness of President Ford (who later died that year). Senator and future President Barack Obama, among other elected officials, attended television service.
President Jimmy Carter and Rev. Joseph Lowery delivered a funeral oration and criticized the Iraq War and wiretapped the Kings. Mrs King was temporarily placed in a grave on King Center so that a permanent place next to her husband's remains could be built. She has stated to family members and others that she wants him to remain lying beside her husband at the King Center. On November 20, 2006, a new mausoleum containing Dr.'s corpses. and Mrs. King was inaugurated in front of friends and family. The Mausoleum is the third resting place of Martin Luther King and the second of Mrs. King.
Family life
Martin is often called Coretta "Corrie," even when both are still dating. The FBI captured a dispute between the couple in mid-1964, where both blamed each other for making the Civil Rights Movement more difficult. Martin confessed in his secretary's 1965 sermon that he had to remind him of his wife's birthday and the couple's wedding anniversary. For the time being, many who accompanied her husband would usually hear Coretta arguing with her in a telephone conversation. King hates her husband every time she fails to call him about the children as he leaves, and knows of his plans not to include him on official visits, such as the White House. However, when the King fails to meet his own standards by losing the plane and falls into despair, Coretta tells her husband over the phone that "I believe in you, if it means anything." Writer Ron Ramdin wrote, "The king faces many new moments and tries, his protection is home and closeness to Coretta, whose calm and soothing voice every time he sings, gives him renewed strength.He is a rock where his marriage and civil rights leadership, especially during this crisis, was established. "After he succeeded in getting Martin Luther King Jr. Day makes a federal holiday, the King says that her husband's dream is "for all people of all religions, all socio-economic levels and all cultures to create a world community free of violence, poverty, racism and war so they can live together in what called his beloved community or the concept of his world house. "
The king considers raising children in a society that discriminates them seriously, and speaks against their husbands whenever they disagree with their family's financial needs. The Kings have four children; Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. The four children then follow in the footsteps of their parents as civil rights activists. King thought he was raising them to be proud of their skin color, until asked by his daughter Yolanda why "beautiful white people and bad Negroes?" His daughter Bernice calls her "My favorite person." Years after the King's death, Bernice would say his mother "spearheaded efforts to establish the King's Center in Atlanta as an official live alert for Martin Luther King Jr., and then went on to commemorate the national holiday commemorating our father's birthday, and the host of the effort and in many ways he paved the way and made it possible for the most hated man in America in 1968 to now become one of the most respected and beloved in the world. "Dexter Scott King resigned four months after becoming president of the often-linked King Center with a difference with his mother. Dexter's work sees job cuts from 70 to 14, and also removes the mother-care center that his mother founded.
Legal Charges
The King's family was largely criticized for handling Martin Luther King Jr.'s property, while Coretta was alive and after his death. The King's family sued the California auction in 1992, a family lawyer filed a stolen claim against the Excellence Gallery at the Los Angeles Superior Court for return of documents. The King's family also sued the auction house for compensation. In 1994, USA Today paid the family $ 10,000 in attorneys' fees and court costs as well as a $ 1,700 license fee for using the "I Have a Dream" speech without their permission. CBS was sued by the King estate for copyright infringement in November 1996. The network sold the recording containing the quotation of "I Have a Dream" speech. CBS has filmed a speech when Martin Luther King Jr. submitted it in 1963 and did not pay the license fee to the family.
On April 8, 1998, Ny. King met with Attorney General Janet Reno as requested by President Bill Clinton. Their meeting took place at the Justice Department four days after the thirtieth anniversary of her husband's death. On July 29, 1998, Ny. King and his son, Dexter, met with Justice Department officials. The next day, Associate Attorney General Raymond Fisher told reporters "We discuss with them orally what process we will follow to see if it meets their concerns and we think it should, but they think about it." On October 2, 1998, the King's family filed a lawsuit against Loyd Jowers after he publicly declared that he had been paid to hire a murderer to kill Martin Luther King. Son Ny. King, Dexter meets with Jowers, and his family argues that the shot that killed Mrs King's husband came from behind a dense bushy area behind Jim's Grill. The gunman was identified by lawyer James Earl Ray as Earl Clark, a police officer at the time of the King's death, who had died for several years before the trial and lawsuits emerged. Jowers himself refused to identify the man he claimed killed Martin Luther King, as an aid to whom he confirmed as a murderer who had died on charges of association with organized crime. The King's lawsuit seeks unspecified damage from Jowers and other "unknown coconspirators". On November 16, 1999, Ny. King testified that he hoped the truth would happen, in connection with the murder of her husband. Mrs King believes that while Ray may have a role in the death of her husband, she does not believe that she is the one who "really, really kills her." He was the first member of the King's family to testify at the trial, and noted that the family believed Ray was not acting alone. It was at this time that the King called on President Bill Clinton to set up a national commission to investigate the killing, because he believed "such a commission can make a major contribution to the healing and reconciliation of races in America."
Legacy
Coretta was seen during her life and was stubbornly struggling to defend her husband's heritage. The King Center, which he created the year of his assassination, allowed her husband's tomb to be immortalized. The king was buried with his husband after his death, on February 7, 2006. The king "struggled to defend his heritage" and his development at the King's Center was said to have helped in his efforts.
The king has been linked and linked with Jacqueline Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, since all three lost their husbands for murder. All three were together when Coretta flew to Los Angeles after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy with Ethel and shared "color blindness." He has also been compared to Michelle Obama, the first African-American First Lady of the United States.
He is seen as the most responsible for the creation of the holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr. The feast is now observed in all fifty states and has been in existence since 2000. The first anniversary of the holiday after his death was commemorated with speeches, visits to the couple's grave, and the opening of Martin Luther King Jr.'s paper collection. Christine King Farris's brother-in-law said, "It's in his memory and his honor that we have to run this program, this is what he wants."
On February 7, 2017, the Republican Party in the Senate voted that Sen. Elizabeth Warren had violated the 19 Senate rules during the debate about Senator Jeff Sessions's top general candidate, claiming that he subdued his character when he quoted statements made about Sessions by Coretta and Sen Ted Kennedy. "Mr. Sessions has used the overwhelming power of his office to cool the free rehearsal exercise by blacks in the district he is now trying to serve as a federal judge.It can not be allowed to happen," Coretta wrote in a 1986 letter to Senator Strom Thurmond, who trying to be read by Warren on the Senate floor. This action prohibits Warren from participating further in the debate on Session nomination for the US Attorney General. Instead, she stepped into the nearest room and continued reading Coretta's letters while streaming live on the Internet.
In-picture depiction
- Cicely Tyson, in the 1978 television miniseries King
- Angela Bassett, in the television movie 2013 Betty & amp; Coretta
- Carmen Ejogo plays Coretta King in 2001 HBO Boycott and 2014 Selma .
Recognition and rewards
Coretta Scott King was the recipient of numerous awards and honors before and after his death. He received honorary degrees from many institutions, including Princeton University, Duke University, and Bates College. He was honored by his two alma mams in 2004, receiving the Horace Mann Award from Antioch College and the Extraordinary Alumni Award from the New England Conservatory of Music.
In 1970, the American Library Association mul
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments