01/17/2023
As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today and honor his immense contributions to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, we would also like to remember the critical role played by his wife, Coretta Scott King. Coretta was a prominent leader in the struggle for racial equality during the 1950s and 1960s, participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Following her husband's assassination in 1968, King took her husband's place as one of the Civil Rights Movement's leaders. She founded the MLK Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and served as its president and CEO for many years. King became an advocate for a wide range of social causes, including women's rights, LGBT rights, world peace, and economic justice. As early as December 1968, she called for women to "unite and form a solid block of women power to fight the three great evils of racism, poverty and war." Until her death in 2006, King remained a staunch supporter of the downtrodden around the world, working on causes as varied as the peace movement of the 1960s and 1970s to the anti-apartheid movement during the 1980s.
Both Kings were tireless advocates for justice and equality for all people throughout their lives, embodying the belief, as Coretta once stated, that “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
To introduce children to the trailblazing Coretta Scott King, we highly recommend the stunning picture book "Coretta Scott" for ages 4 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/coretta-scott), the new chapter book "She Persisted: Coretta Scott King" (https://www.amightygirl.com/she-persisted-coretta-scott-king), and the illustrated biography "Who Was Coretta Scott King?" for ages 9 to 12 (https://www.amightygirl.com/who-was-coretta-scott-king)
The wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King was a civil rights leader in her own right, playing a prominent role in the African American struggle for racial equality in the 1960s. She joined the NAACP while she was still in college, and it was her determination and courage that allowed he...