[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 362 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 362
Honoring the life of Coretta Scott King and expressing the condolences
of the Senate on her passing.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 31, 2006
Mr. Frist (for himself, Mr. Reid, Mr. Obama, Mr. Isakson, Mr.
Chambliss, Mr. Santorum, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Allard, Mr.
Allen, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Biden, Mr. Bingaman, Mr.
Bond, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Bunning, Mr. Burns, Mr. Burr, Mr.
Byrd, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Carper, Mr. Chafee, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Coburn,
Mr. Cochran, Mr. Coleman, Ms. Collins, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Cornyn, Mr.
Craig, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Dayton, Mr. DeMint, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Dodd, Mrs.
Dole, Mr. Domenici, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Ensign, Mr. Enzi, Mr.
Feingold, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Graham, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Gregg, Mr.
Hagel, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Hatch, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Inouye,
Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Kyl,
Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Levin, Mr. Lieberman, Mrs.
Lincoln, Mr. Lott, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Martinez, Mr. McCain, Mr. McConnell,
Mr. Menendez, Ms. Mikulski, Ms. Murkowski, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Nelson of
Florida, Mr. Nelson of Nebraska, Mr. Pryor, Mr. Reed, Mr. Roberts, Mr.
Rockefeller, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Sessions, Mr.
Shelby, Mr. Smith, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Specter, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Stevens,
Mr. Sununu, Mr. Talent, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Thune, Mr. Vitter, Mr.
Voinovich, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Wyden) submitted the following
resolution; which was considered and agreed to
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Honoring the life of Coretta Scott King and expressing the condolences
of the Senate on her passing.
Whereas Coretta Scott King was an inspirational figure and a woman of great
strength, grace, and dignity who came to personify the ideals for which
her husband fought;
Whereas Coretta Scott was born and raised in rural Alabama, graduated as the
valedictorian from Lincoln High School, and received a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio;
Whereas Coretta Scott fought to be allowed to teach in the local public schools
in Ohio but was denied because of her race;
Whereas Coretta Scott studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music in
Boston and, while attending school in the City, met a graduate student
who was studying for his doctorate degree at Boston University;
Whereas that graduate student, Martin Luther King, Jr., told her on their first
date, ``The four things that I look for in a wife are character,
personality, intelligence, and beauty. And you have them all.'';
Whereas Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr. were married on June 18, 1953,
and moved to Montgomery, Alabama;
Whereas Mrs. King gave birth to her first child, Yolanda, 2 weeks before the
start of the Montgomery bus boycott, and protected her when opponents of
the boycott bombed the King household;
Whereas Dr. and Mrs. King were to have 3 more children named Martin Luther, III,
Dexter, and Bernice;
Whereas during the lifetime of Dr. King, Mrs. King balanced the demands of
raising their 4 children, serving as the wife of a pastor, and speaking
before church, civic, college, fraternal, and peace groups;
Whereas Mrs. King participated in more than 30 ``Freedom Concerts'', where she
lectured, read poetry, and sang to raise awareness of and money for the
civil rights movement;
Whereas Mrs. King stood by the side of her husband during many civil rights
marches and other notable occasions, including a 1957 trip to Ghana to
mark the independence of that country, a 1959 trip to India to visit
sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi, and a 1964 trip to Oslo, Norway,
to accept a Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr. King;
Whereas just 4 days after the assassination of her husband in 1968, Mrs. King
led a march of 50,000 people through the streets of Memphis and, later
that year, took his place in the Poor People's March to Washington;
Whereas Mrs. King devoted her energy to carrying on the message of nonviolence
and the work of her husband to create a United States in which all
people have equal rights;
Whereas Mrs. King dedicated herself to raising funds and developing programs for
the Atlanta-based Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social
Change, where she served as founding President, Chair, and Chief
Executive Officer;
Whereas Mrs. King was instrumental in seeing that the birthday of her husband
was 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 3 books;
Whereas Mrs. King received the congressional gold medal for her invaluable
contributions to the United States as a leader of the civil rights
movement;
Whereas Mrs. King traveled to every corner of the United States and the globe to
speak out on behalf of a number of important issues, including racial
and economic justice, the rights of women and children, religious
freedom, full employment, health care, and education; and
Whereas Coretta Scott King was a civil rights icon and one of the most
influential African Americans in history: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) mourns the loss of Coretta Scott King;
(2) admires her lifelong commitment to social justice and
peace;
(3) recognizes her role as a leading participant in the
American Civil Rights Movement and her support to democracy
movements world-wide;
(4) expresses its sympathies to the family of Coretta Scott
King; and
(5) directs the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an
enrolled copy of this resolution to the family of Coretta Scott
King.
<all>