Coretta Scott King: 1927-2006

Coretta Scott King was a courageous woman who inspired us with her quiet grace and steely reserve. A notable tribute from Rev. Al Sharpton:

"She was truly the first lady of the human rights movement. The only thing worse than losing her is if we never had her," the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York said in a statement released to wire services. "For those of us that were too young to get to know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. very well, we got to know Coretta Scott King as a compassionate, caring, yet firm matriarch of the movement for justice. She was kind and gentle with impeccable grace and dignity, yet firm and strong and immovable under issues that she and her husband committed their lives to."

Though her husband was the most prominent voice for civil rights in modern history, Mrs. King not only kept her husband's legacy alive, but was an activist in her own right. Her biography is available here at the King Center web site.

Daniel Rubin has a roundup of noteworthy blog posts about Mrs. King.

Pam over at Pam's House Blend quotes at length from a memorable speech Mrs. King gave at the Creating Change Conference. An excerpt:

I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.

My husband, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, “We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny…an inescapable network of mutuality.… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

In these times when assaults on our civil rights continue in the name of national security and religious bigotry, Mrs. King was one of the brave voices who didn't hesitate to stand for the common good. May we all have her courage.

+Save/Share | |