“I am not a symbol, I am an activist” Coretta Scott King
Just over a year after Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination, Coretta Scott King wrote a book about his life and her life in June 1969. My book is signed by her. It is also signed by my mom. My mom put her name in every book that she owned.
I wanted to write about Coretta Scott King, because without her, there would be no Martin Luther King Day, as her daughter, Bernice King reminds us.
Learn more about the holiday and its annual theme for 2024: https://thekingcenter.org/king-holiday-2024/
“Our strategic theme for 2024 is ‘Shifting the Cultural Climate through the Study and Practice of Kingian Nonviolence’. This theme defines the 2024 King Holiday Observance events and programming while serving as a compass for all the work we will do this upcoming calendar year and beyond. The pioneering work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrated that Kingian Nonviolence (Nonviolence365™) is the sustainable solution to injustice and violence in our world, ultimately leading to the creation of the Beloved Community, where injustice ceases and love prevails.”
There is no Martin Luther King Day without Coretta Scott King.
Martin Luther King Day did not become a national holiday until 1983, fifteen years after his death. FIFTEEN YEARS! I think about how many of us would have persisted in the face of so many years of rejection.
I just want to share a bit about her and what I learned about her from her life. Coretta was an incredibly talented musician, studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and that is where she met Martin. She believes she was sent there:
“I believe that there is a plan and purpose for each person’s life and that there are forces working in the universe to bring about good and to create a community of love and brotherhood. Those who can attune themselves to these forces—to God’s purpose—can become special instruments of His will.” P. 64.
She shares about the small number of students in the conservatory, and that “one of the worst evils of segregation was the waste of this creative force and the ruin of the lives of talented men and women who happened to be black.” Pg. 65.
Her degree was in music education, with a major in voice. She also had to take classes in violin, piano, choir directing, orchestral arrangement, percussion, strings, woodwinds, and brass. She wrestled with the idea of marriage, knowing that it would impact her career, eventually deciding that she would marry Martin and “let the question of my career take care of itself.” She was, however, “determined to go on and get my degree.”
And she used her degree and training during the Civil Rights Movement. During the Civil Rights movement in 1964, Coretta gave “Freedom Concerts”. It was “an inspired concept seeking to combine in dramatic form, art, and experience in a practical, relevant, meaningful way.” P. 251. She felt that her background as a performer and public speaker allowed her to communicate the freedom struggle in both words and song. The Freedom Concert is “The Story of the Struggle from 1955 to 1965.”
These concerts raised more than $50,000 for the SCLC and its affiliates.
Coretta often spoke at key events. As part of the Selma march, there were many famous artists and Coretta was one of the speakers. As part of her speech, she recited Mother to Son by Langston Hughes.
Coretta was the inspiration for the founding of an organization in Chicago called, “Women Mobilized for Change,” an integrated organization working to support social justice:
Coretta was very much a feminist and sensitive to the rights and roles of women. She purposefully asked that “obey” not be part of her wedding vows. (p. 86).
She was also outspoken about the sexism in the Civil Rights movement:
“Most thought that women should stay in the shadows,” Scott King explained, “however I felt that as women, we had much to contribute. In fact for the longest time, way before I married Martin, I had believed that women should allow our essence and presence to shine, rather than letting ourselves be buried or shunted to the sidelines.” Scott King herself had noted these gender inequalities in a 1966 article in New Lady: “Not enough attention has been focused on the roles played by women in the struggle … Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement … Women have been the ones who have made it possible for the movement to be a mass movement.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/03/coretta-scott-king-extract
On April 6, 1968, two days after his murder, Coretta spoke to the press. In part, she said:
“My husband often told the children that if a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live. He said also that it’s not how long you live, but how well you live. …Nothing hurt him more than that man could attempt no way to solve problems except through violence. He gave his life in search of a more excellent way, a more effective way, a creative rather than a destructive way. … We intend to go on in search of that way, and I hope that you who loved and admired him would join us in fulfilling his dream. The day that Negro people and others in bondage are truly free, on the day want is abolished, on the day wars are no more, on that day I know my husband will rest in a long-deserved peace.” P. 327.
As Coretta wrote: “I feel strongly that Martin’s work must go on. … Because his task was not finished, I felt that I must rededicate myself to the completion of this work. Also, I felt that not only must I do this, but that if enough individuals joined in the work, Martin’s dream would be realized, and his death will have served the redemptive purpose which he talked about so often. Not that I can do what Martin did; but I hope to make my contribution in my own way. In some small way, perhaps I can serve, as he did, the aspirations of oppressed people of all races, throughout the world.” P. 329.
“In some small way,” I believe that is what we must all do. Learn more about Coretta’s amazing life and legacy, advocacy for world peace, and support for same-sex marriage and the LGBTQ community:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/03/coretta-scott-king-extract
Coretta and Martin’s only grand-daughter, Yolanda Renee King, is doing her part. She is speaking out about her grandmother and also writing, her own children’s book.
About the book, Yolanda says: “The world almost seems to beat us down, and I think that that section [of the book] kind of inspires young Black girls [to] overcome,” said King. “With work and with commitment, we can fully eliminate [those obstacles], and we are strong enough. We have a suit of armor that will protect us.”
Learn more about Yolanda at:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1628501727681723
Coretta and Yolanda epitomize the spirit of Blackwildgirl.
I hope you will take time to pre-order my new book, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower and the companion journal, “Finding Your Superpower” (Out April 2, 2024).
To Pre-order Blackwildgirl Companion Journal https://a.co/d/dgURPG2
In some small way, perhaps we can all serve and make a difference for the aspirations of oppressed people of all races, throughout the world.
About Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
I learned even more about Martin Luther King through the book. I learned that he wrote four books! Incredible, especially, in the midst of all his work on behalf of civil rights!
https://guides.library.cornell.edu/mlk/books
Call Number: Africana Library F334.M79 N4535 2010
Dr. King’s account of the first successful large-scale application of nonviolence resistance in America is comprehensive, revelatory, and intimate. King traces the phenomenal journey of a community, and shows how he at twenty-eight-year-old, with his conviction for equality and nonviolence, helped transformed the nation-and the world.
Call Number: Africana Library E185.61 .K54 2010
Dr. King’s best-selling account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963. King examines the history of the civil rights struggle and the tasks that future generations must accomplish to bring about full equality. The book also includes the extraordinary “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which King wrote in April of 1963.
Call Number: Africana Library BX6452 .K53 2012
The classic collection of sixteen sermons preached and compiled by Dr. King. As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love, a volume of his best-known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962.
Call Number: Africana Library E185.615 .K5 2010
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this significantly prophetic work we find King’s acute analysis of American race relations and the state of the movement after a decade of civil rights efforts. Here he lays out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America’s future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education.
Call Number: Olin Library E185.97 .K53 1968
In November and December 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered five lectures for the renowned Massey Lecture Series of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The collection was immediately released as a book under the title Conscience for Change, but after King’s assassination in 1968, it was republished as The Trumpet of Conscience. The collection sums up his lasting creed and is his final testament on racism, poverty, and war.
Call Number: Africana Library BT703 .K5x 1988
Eloquent and passionate, reasoned and sensitive, this pair of meditations by the revered civil-rights leader contains the theological roots of his political and social philosophy of nonviolent activism.