Coretta Scott King

(1927-2006)

BIRTH

April 27, 1927

PLACE

Heiberger, Alabama

NAME

Coretta Scott

DEATH

January 30, 2006

PLACE

Rosarito, Mexico

FAMILY

FATHER

Obadiah Scott

(1899–1998)

MOTHER

Bernice McMurry Scott

(1905–1996)

HUSBAND

Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929-1968)

HOMES

NICKNAMES

Corrie

POLITICAL VIEWS

ANTI-APARTHEID LEADER, CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATE, LGBT RIGHTS ADVOCATE, WOMEN’S RIGHTS ADVOCATE

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

CHRISTIAN

BAPTIST

MEMBERSHIPS

ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA MEMBER, BAPTIST TRAINING UNION MEMBER, COALITION OF CONSCIENCE FOUNDER, DEXTER AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH CHOIR MEMBER, DEXTER AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR CENTER FOR NONVIOLENT SOCIAL CHANGE FOUNDER, NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR FULL EMPLOYMENT COCHAIR, NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR FULL EMPLOYMENT COFOUNDER

AWARDS

NATIONAL WOMENS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE

Coretta Scott married Martin Luther King Jr. on June 18, 1953, at her parents' home near Marion, Alabama, and they moved to Montgomery in 1954. She grew up in rural Perry County, where she walked miles to a one-room school while white children rode buses. She led a long campaign for a federal holiday in his honor, which was signed into law in 1983. Coretta Scott King suffered a stroke in 2005. She died at a clinic in Rosarito, Mexico, on January 30, 2006.

ACTIVISTMUSICIANWRITER

EARLY LIFE

Coretta Scott was born on April 27, 1927, in Heiberger, Alabama, the daughter of Obadiah Scott, a farmer and businessman, and Bernice McMurry. She grew up in rural Perry County, where she walked miles to a one-room school while white children rode buses. She graduated as valedictorian from Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama, and in 1945 she went to Antioch College in Ohio, where she studied music and education and became active in civil rights and peace causes. She then won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she studied voice and was introduced to Martin Luther King Jr.

Coretta Scott King developed public work through music, peace activism, and the civil rights movement. After conservatory study and marriage to Martin Luther King Jr., she used freedom concerts to combine performance with fundraising and education. During the Montgomery bus boycott and later campaigns she managed family responsibilities amid threats while participating in public advocacy. Her work with peace organizations and opposition to the Vietnam War established commitments that extended beyond her husband's immediate campaigns.

After his assassination in 1968, King led a march in Memphis and continued supporting the Poor People's Campaign. She founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, creating an institution for archives, education, and the promotion of nonviolent action. Building and sustaining the center required fundraising, partnerships, and negotiations over how the movement's history would be preserved.

King led a long campaign for a national holiday honoring her husband, mobilizing public support and lobbying Congress. The federal law was enacted in 1983, with observance beginning in 1986. She also supported opposition to apartheid, traveled internationally, and linked racial justice with peace, economic opportunity, and women's rights. Her advocacy included support for gay and lesbian equality, presenting civil rights as a broader commitment to equal dignity rather than a closed achievement of the 1960s.

Through speeches, writing, and institutional leadership, King remained an influential voice after the principal victories of the earlier movement. She worked to maintain connections among activists and to introduce new generations to nonviolent practice. Public attention often defined her primarily through her marriage, but the center, holiday campaign, and international advocacy required sustained leadership of her own. Illness reduced her activity in her final year, and she died in 2006. Her career demonstrates how a movement can continue through institutions, education, and coalition work after the loss of a central figure. It also shows the practical labor behind preserving a public legacy: collecting evidence, securing resources, and making historical ideals relevant to new disputes. Her contributions therefore include both stewardship of Martin Luther King's memory and independent work on the wider human rights questions she pursued throughout her life.

CAREER

DEATH

Initially, she was unable to speak or move her right side. King's daughter Bernice reported that she had been able to move her leg on Sunday, August 21 while her other daughter and oldest child Yolanda asserted that the family expected her to fully recover. She was released from Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on September 22, 2005, after regaining some of her speech and continued physiotherapy at home. Due to continuing health problems, King canceled a number of speaking and traveling engagements throughout the remainder of 2005. On January 14, 2006, Coretta made her last public appearance in Atlanta at a dinner honoring her husband's memory. On January 26, 2006, King checked into a rehabilitation center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico under a different name. Doctors did not learn her real identity until her medical records arrived the next day, and did not begin treatment due to her condition. Coretta Scott King died in the late evening of January 30, 2006, at the rehabilitation center in Mexico, in the Oasis Hospital where she was undergoing holistic therapy for her stroke and advanced-stage ovarian cancer. The main cause of her death is believed to be respiratory failure due to complications from ovarian cancer. The clinic at which she died was called the Hospital Santa Mónica, but was licensed as Clínica Santo Tomás. King's body was flown from Mexico to Atlanta on February 1, 2006. King's eight-hour funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, was held on February 7.