Coretta Scott King - A lady that leaves a legacy from the life she lived

By Othor Cain

More than the widow of slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King was a pillar of strength in her own right. Coretta quietly died Tuesday, Jan. 31 in her sleep at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico, her family said. She was 78.

King had been recovering from a stroke and heart attack suffered last August. Just two weeks ago, on the eve of her late husband’s birthday, she made her first public appearance in a year.

Her quiet demeanor was sometimes mistaken as not being committed to the civil rights movement. But that was an incorrect assumption. Activists from around the country state, “She may have had a quiet delivery but she was fully committed to the struggle.”

King worked tirelessly for more than a decade to get Congress to declare her husband’s birthday as a national holiday, achieving success in 1986. in 1969, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in her basement. The Center has grown considerably housing unique exhibits illustrating Dr. King's life and teachings. Mrs. King confronted hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism through this powerful vehicle.

She was always supportive of her husband during the most dangerous and tumultuous days of the civil rights movement. After his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, she carried the torch while raising their four children- Martin III, Yolanda, Dexter and Bernice. King never remarried. “I’m more determined than ever that my husband’s dream will become a reality,” the young widow said soon after the slaying.

King’s death comes just three months after the death of civil rights legend Rosa Parks. Parks died Oct. 24 at age 92.

Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of civil rights activist Medgar Evers and one-third of the trinity of civil rights widows including King and Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, said in a statement the three were “members of a club that no one wants to join - ‘the widow of.’”

“We faced the challenge of raising our children without their fathers; we shared the challenge of bearing our husbands’ legacies with dignity; we shared the challenges of the ever-shifting civil rights movement,” Evers said.

King was born April 27, 1927, in Perry County, Ala. To help her family during the Depression, young Coretta Scott picked cotton. Later, she worked as a waitress to earn her way through Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

King lived a life that we all can be proud of, she left a legacy that we all can embrace and shared strength that we all can hold on to.

Coretta Scott King's funeral will be held noon on Tuesday, February 7 at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.