7 Things Coretta Scott King Should Be Remembered For

...Other than being the widow of Dr. King



Allison Silberberg via Getty Images
Coretta Scott King attends a ceremony dedicating an engraved marker in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in 2003.

January 30 marks the 10 year anniversary of the death of Coretta Scott King, widow of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She died in 2006 at the age of 78 and was honored with a funeral attended by heads of state and civil rights leaders alike.

King will of course always be remembered as the strong wife and mother who supported her activist husband up until his murder in 1968. But while so much of her legacy is intertwined with that of her late husband's, what's often forgotten is the fact that Mrs. King was an activist in her own right, well before she married her famous husband.

Here are the 7 things you may not know about Coretta Scott King's activism:



ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coretta Scott King at the conclusion of her address to Woman Power in Action for Peace Conference at Wisconsin University, Milwaukee in 1969


She was active in the Civil Rights Movement as a young college student. King became a member of the NAACP after she was banned from student teaching while pursuing a graduate degree at Antioch College. When one of her supervisors told her that black teachers should not teach white students, she protested, and joined the NAACP on her campus as well as the the Young Progressives and the Civil Liberties Committee.

She was an advocate for human rights. In 1983, Mrs. King helped create the Coalition of Conscience. The organization is a collective of 800 human rights groups dedicated to promoting world peace. It sponsored the 20th and 25th anniversaries of the March on Washington.

She was against apartheid. She was part of several protests against apartheid in South Africa, and lobbied for the release of Nelson Mandela. She traveled several times to the country to meet with anti-apartheid activists and to support black South Africans affected by state-sanctioned oppression.




ASSOCIATED PRESS

Coretta Scott King speaking at the Circles of Hope dinner in 2002. King spoke on a range of topics including tighter gun control laws, gay rights, and against a possible war in Iraq.

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Coretta King. Her beauty, grace and activism was inspiring. I am not saying anything you do not already know. I just wanted to give her some love and respect. Ten years ago 01/30 she passed away. In my opinion far to young.

""I am a Woman Phenomenally Phenomenal Woman, that's me." Maya Angelou"

" Quiet please there is a lady on stage." Peter Allen.



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