Coretta Scott King

American civil rights leader with her famed husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She survived many traumatic events including a bombing of their home on January 30, 1956, shortly after the birth of their first child, her husband’s stabbing two years later, on September 20, 1958, and his 1968 assassination.

The middle of three children, King grew up in the segregated south. A good student despite harsh conditions, she graduated high school as valedictorian of her class. She earned a scholarship and attended Antioch College in Ohio. There she joined the Antioch chapter of the NAACP and became active in campus civil rights organizations. With a B.A. in music and education, King won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. In January 1952, she met her future husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., then a Ph.D. candidate. They married on June 18, 1953 and she completed her advanced degree in voice and violin. In September 1954 they moved to Montgomery, AL, where her husband had obtained an assignment as Pastor of a Baptist Church. After Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery City bus, Martin Luther King, Jr. became a leader of the community protest which began with a boycott of city buses. He formed the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) on February 14, 1957.

Coretta has said that her husband had rather traditional views of a woman’s role and she was busy tending to their four children, Yolanda, born November 17, 1955; Martin III, born October 23, 1957; Dexter born on January 30, 1961, and Bernice, who arrived on March 28, 1963. Nevertheless, she was an active supporter of his work. Putting her musical talents to good use Coretta organized and performed in Freedom Concerts which told the story of the Civil Rights movement. As her husband’s fame grew, hers did as well and in the 1960s she found herself in demand as a public speaker.