[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 655 Engrossed in House (EH)]


H. Res. 655

                 In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

                                                      February 1, 2006.
Whereas Coretta Scott King was an inspirational figure and a woman of great 
        strength, grace, and dignity who came to personify the ideals of the 
        Civil Rights Movement, for which she and her husband fought;
Whereas Coretta Scott was born on April 27, 1927, to parents Obadiah and Bernice 
        Scott, was raised in rural Alabama, graduated valedictorian from Lincoln 
        High School, and received a B.A. from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, 
        Ohio;
Whereas Coretta Scott came of age in the segregated South, took an active 
        interest in the emerging Civil Rights Movement as an undergraduate, and 
        jointed the Antioch chapter of the NAACP, and the Race Relations and 
        Civil Liberties Committees of Antioch College;
Whereas Coretta Scott won a scholarship to study concert singing at Boston's New 
        England Conservatory of Music;
Whereas while in Boston, Coretta Scott met Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a 
        graduate student studying for his doctorate at Boston University;
Whereas after Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr. were married on June 18, 
        1953, Mrs. Coretta Scott King completed her degree in voice and violin 
        at the New England Conservatory of Music, and the young couple moved in 
        September 1954 to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King, Jr. had 
        accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church;
Whereas their first child, Yolanda, was born in 1955, just two weeks before the 
        beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, during which the King house was 
        bombed;
Whereas the Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther, III, Dexter 
        Scott, and Bernice Albertine;
Whereas during Dr. King's lifetime, Mrs. King served as an equal partner in the 
        Civil Rights Movement, balancing the demands of raising their four 
        children, serving as a pastor's wife, and speaking before church, civic, 
        college, fraternal, and peace groups;
Whereas Mrs. King established and performed in more than 30 successful ``Freedom 
        Concerts'' that combined prose and poetry narration with musical 
        selections to increase awareness and understanding of the Movement and 
        the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which Dr. King served 
        as the first president;
Whereas Mrs. King stood side-by-side with her husband during many civil rights 
        marches and on other notable occasions, including a 1957 trip to Ghana 
        to mark that country's independence, a 1959 trip to India to visit sites 
        associated with Mahatma Gandhi, and a 1964 trip to Oslo, Norway, to 
        accept Dr. King's Nobel Peace Prize;
Whereas just four days after her husband's assassination on April 4, 1968, Mrs. 
        King led a march of 50,000 people through the streets of Memphis, 
        Tennessee, and later that year took his place in the Poor People's March 
        to Washington, D.C.;
Whereas Mrs. King devoted her energy to carrying on her husband's legacy of 
        nonviolence and his work to create an America in which all people have 
        equal rights;
Whereas Mrs. King dedicated herself to developing and building the Atlanta-based 
        Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as an 
        enduring memorial to her husband's life and their dream of nonviolent 
        social change and full civil rights for all Americans and, as its 
        founding President, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer, she guided the 
        creation and housing of the largest archive of documents from the Civil 
        Rights Movement;
Whereas Mrs. King was instrumental in seeing her husband's birthday honored as a 
        Federal holiday, an occasion first marked in 1986;
Whereas Mrs. King received honorary doctorates from over 60 colleges and 
        universities and authored three books;
Whereas Mrs. King worked to advance the cause of justice and human rights around 
        the world and spoke out on behalf of a number of important issues, 
        including racial and economic justice, women's and children's rights, 
        religious freedom, full employment, health care, and education; and
Whereas Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a civil rights icon and one of the most 
        influential African Americans in history, and her work brought us closer 
        to achieving the ``Beloved Community'': Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the life and 
accomplishments of Mrs. Coretta Scott King and her contributions as a leader in 
the struggle for civil rights, and expresses condolences to the King family on 
her passing.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.