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Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)

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@ New Georgia Encyclopedia

McCarty, Laura

Description

Encyclopedia article about Coretta Scott King, a proponent of civil and human rights, who helped her husband, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., lead the modern civil rights movement. During their life together, she was his helpmate, raising their four children while supporting his efforts to promote nonviolent social change in race relations during the 1950s and 1960s. Born in 1927 in Heiberger, Alabama, she graduated from Lincoln Normal School, a private school in Marion, Alabama, supported by the American Missionary Association. She then studied music education and sang with choirs at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, graduating in 1951. Her excellence as a singer earned her a scholarship to New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where she received further music training. She often used her singing talents to raise funds for various civil and human rights causes and activities. She and Martin Luther King, Jr., met in Boston and were married in 1953. After her husband's assassination in 1968, she articulated a vision of his nonviolence expressed internationally through the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change that she founded in Atlanta as a memorial to her slain husband. To foster remembrance of his life and work, she advocated a federal holiday to celebrate his January birthday. She died in January 2006 at a holistic health hospital in Mexico and was both the first woman and the first African American to lie in state at the state capitol rotunda in Atlanta, Georgia. She was buried...

Record Contributed By

New Georgia Encyclopedia

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia

Keywords

  1. Affirmative Action Programs
  2. African American Civic Leaders
  3. African American Civil Rights Workers
  4. African American Musicians
  5. African American Singers
  6. African American Social Reformers
  7. African American Women
  8. African American Women Civic Leaders
  9. African American Women Civil Rights Workers
  10. African American Women Musicians
  11. African American Women Singers
  12. African American Women Social Reformers
  13. African Americans
  14. Alabama
  15. Anti Apartheid Activists
  16. Anti Apartheid Movements
  17. Assassination
  18. Atlanta
  19. Awards
  20. Bombings
  21. Boston
  22. Boycotts
  23. Buses
  24. Busing For School Integration
  25. Civic Leaders
  26. Civil Disobedience
  27. Civil Rights
  28. Civil Rights Demonstrations
  29. Civil Rights Movements
  30. Civil Rights Workers
  31. Concerts
  32. Conspiracies
  33. Crypts
  34. Death And Burial
  35. Death And Burial King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929 1968
  36. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Montgomery, Ala.)
  37. Disarmament
  38. Discrimination
  39. Discrimination In Employment
  40. Dynamite
  41. Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, Ga.)
  42. Education
  43. Education (Graduate)
  44. Equal Rights Amendments
  45. Equality
  46. Equality Before The Law
  47. Fairness
  48. Fund Raising
  49. Georgia
  50. Georgia State Capitol (Atlanta, Ga.)
  51. Government
  52. Governmental Investigations
  53. Graduate Work
  54. History
  55. Holidays
  56. Human Rights
  57. Investigation
  58. Jim's Grill (Memphis, Tenn.)
  59. Justice
  60. King, Coretta Scott, 1927 2006
  61. King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929 1968
  62. Law And Legislation
  63. Liberty
  64. Lorraine Motel (Memphis, Tenn.)
  65. March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963
  66. Marion
  67. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center For Nonviolent Social Change
  68. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
  69. Mass Meetings
  70. Massachusetts
  71. Memphis
  72. Montgomery
  73. Montgomery (Ala.)
  74. Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Ala., 1955 1956
  75. Montgomery Improvement Association
  76. Music
  77. Musicians
  78. National Organization For Women
  79. New Birth Missionary Baptist Church (Lithonia, Ga.)
  80. New England Conservatory Of Music
  81. Nobel Prize Winners
  82. Nobel Prizes
  83. Nonviolence
  84. Ohio
  85. Passive Resistance
  86. Peace
  87. Political Crimes And Offenses
  88. Political Violence
  89. Politics And Government
  90. Poor People's Campaign
  91. Protest Marches
  92. Race Discrimination
  93. Race Relation
  94. Race Relations
  95. Rotundas
  96. Sanitation
  97. Sanitation Workers
  98. Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tenn., 1968
  99. Segregation
  100. Segregation In Transportation
  101. Sex Discrimination Against Women
  102. Singers
  103. Social Justice
  104. Social Reformers
  105. Southern Christian Leadership Conference
  106. Southern States
  107. Strikes And Lockouts
  108. Study And Teaching (Graduate)
  109. Tennessee
  110. United States
  111. Universities
  112. Universities And Colleges
  113. Violence
  114. Wages
  115. Washington (D.C.)
  116. Women
  117. Women Civic Leaders
  118. Women Civil Rights Workers
  119. Women Musicians
  120. Women Singers
  121. Women Social Reformers
  122. Women Strike For Peace
  123. Yellow Springs

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