Coretta Scott King Dies

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Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., speaks during an interview at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change Tuesday, January 13, 2004. (Photo: John Bazmore/AP Wide World)

February 1, 2006

Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist and widow of Martin Luther King Jr., died Monday night at the age of 78.

Flags were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning at the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

"We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country," the King family said in a statement.

King had a stroke and a mild heart attack last August and had been sick for the past few months. She was last seen in public on January 14 at a dinner celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

U.S. Representative John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, told CNN that it was "a very sad hour.

She was the glue. Long before she met and married Dr. King, she was an activist for peace and civil rights and for civil liberties," he said.

A Legacy

King was born in Marion, Alabama, on April 27, 1927. She graduated as valedictorian of her high school and attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. While there, she studied music and education.

Soon after graduating she attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and studied concert singing. It was in Boston that she met Martin Luther King Jr.

The couple married in June 1953, and began civil rights work in Montgomery, Alabama. King worked closely with her husband, helping to organize marches and sit-ins at segregated restaurants while raising their four children.

She also sang in Freedom Concerts that were held to raise money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dr. King was co-founder and the first president of that organization.

After Dr. King was murdered in 1968, Coretta Scott King fought hard to carry on the fight for equality and to build a memorial for her husband.

"Because his task was not finished, I felt that I must rededicate myself to the completion of his work," she said.

After his death, she joined the board of directors of the National Organization for Women and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King also worked hard to establish a national holiday to honor her husband's memory. After she campaigned for more than 10 years, Congress approved the third Monday in January as an official Federal holiday in honor of Dr. King. The first holiday was observed in 1986.

She also founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. The center became a memorial to her husband's work and dream.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King, said that Coretta Scott King had become a civil rights icon.

"She'll be remembered as a strong woman whose grace and dignity held up the image of her husband as a man of peace, of racial justice, of fairness," he said.

Tiffany Chaparro is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.

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