[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 1, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S440-S441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING CORETTA SCOTT KING

  Mr. TALENT. Mr. President, it is with great sadness that I offer my 
condolences on the passing of Coretta Scott King, who passed away at 
the age of 78. Indeed, I offer these remarks on behalf of all 
Missourians who have been touched by her legacy and that of Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. A tireless champion and partner in her husband's work, 
Mrs. King's life represents an American story from which we can all 
draw strength. She never stopped working toward the prize God called 
her to achieve.
  Born in rural Alabama on April 27, 1927, Coretta Scott was the second 
child of Obadiah and Bernice Scott, hard working parents who wanted 
more opportunities than they had for their children. An ambitious 
student, Mrs. King graduated first in her high school class and 
continued her studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH. She had 
a passion for education and music and went on to the New England 
Conservatory of Music in Boston, following her graduation from Antioch.
  It was in 1952 in Boston where she met the man who would become her 
husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They were married the next year 
and eventually settled in Atlanta, where they reared their four 
children, Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. Mrs. King was by no 
means a bystander in the groundbreaking changes her husband worked to 
achieve. She was a partner in her husband's historic work to make this 
country whole.
  Following the murder of her husband in 1968, Mrs. King could have 
chosen to retreat into the privacy of her family. Indeed, in the 
aftermath of that tragedy, she was a widow who had the sole 
responsibility of raising four young children. But instead, Mrs. King 
bravely chose to continue her husband's work and his quest for racial 
equality. She worked tirelessly to have her husband's birthday 
memorialized as a national holiday and to establish the King Center, a 
lasting memorial and research institution dedicated to the Dr. King's 
principles of justice, equality, and peace.
  Mr. President, Coretta Scott King continued her work to bring this 
country together until her final days. She never stopped believing that 
we have a historic responsibility to move America forward and extend 
the American dream to all those who seek it, regardless of race. Today, 
as a nation, we mourn Mrs. King's passing. We are thankful for her time 
here with us, the fruits of her labor, and the profound impact she has 
left on a grateful country.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I wish to offer some remarks on our loss 
of Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who has passed away at the age of 78. I 
join my colleagues in cosponsoring and supporting S. Res. 362 to honor 
the life of and express the condolences of the Senate on her passing.
  Coretta Scott King was born April 27, 1927, on a farm in Heiberger, 
AL, to Obadiah, Obie, and Bernice McMurry Scott. Though her family 
owned the land, it was often a hard life. All the children had to pick 
cotton during the Great Depression to help the family make ends meet.
  Graduating from Lincoln Normal School in Marion, AL, at the top of 
her class in 1945, Coretta went to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, 
OH. After graduation, she moved to Boston, MA, where she met Martin 
Luther King, Jr. They were married in 1953 on the lawn of her parents' 
house and with the ceremony performed by King's father. Coretta King 
received a degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory, 
then moved with her husband to Montgomery, AL, in September 1954 after 
he was named pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Together, they 
had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter 
Scott King, and Bernice Albertine King.
  Mrs. King received honorary degrees from many institutions including 
Princeton University and Bates College. She was a member of Alpha Kappa 
Alpha, a noted African-American women's sorority.
  The King family was front and center to one of the most turbulent 
times of the 20th century. Just 2 weeks after the birth of her first 
child, Rosa Parks was arrested on a Montgomery bus, helping spark what 
would develop into the modern civil rights movement that would be led 
by her husband. The struggles that followed included a narrow escape 
from death in 1956 when Mrs. King and her daughter were home when a 
bomb exploded at the family's residence--her husband was speaking at 
Rev. Ralph Abernathy's First Baptist Church at the time.
  Mrs. King later put together a series of Freedom Concerts that 
combined poetry, narration, and music to highlight the movement and 
also raise funds for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 
1962, she served as a Women's Strike for Peace delegate to the 17-
nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
  Notably, she preceded her husband by 2 years in opposing the Vietnam 
War,

[[Page S441]]

addressing a 1965 antiwar rally at Madison Square Garden in New York 
City, while also serving as a liaison to international peace and 
justice organizations.
  Over the years, she was active in preserving the memory of her 
husband and in other political issues. After her husband was 
assassinated in 1968, she began attending a commemorative service at 
Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark her husband's birth every 
January 15th and fought for years to make it a national holiday, a 
quest that was realized in 1986, when the first Martin Luther King Day 
was celebrated and which we just recently celebrated 2 weeks ago.
  In her own right, Mrs. King was vocal and influential on many issues, 
including opposing apartheid; opposing capital punishment; opposing the 
2003 invasion of Iraq; and advocating for the rights of women, lesbians 
and gays, as well as AIDS/HIV prevention.
  I was disturbed to hear of Mrs. King's hospitalization in August 2005 
after suffering a stroke and a mild heart attack but encouraged by her 
progress in regaining some of her speech and continued physiotherapy at 
home. I understand that on January 14, 2006, Mrs. King made her last 
public appearance in Atlanta at a dinner honoring her husband's memory 
and that, fittingly, she will be buried in Atlanta next to her husband 
at The King Center.
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King were remarkable 
people who led remarkable lives. Our Nation is a better place for their 
actions, and they will continue to live in our collective memory for 
many years to come. I wish to offer her family and friends my deepest 
condolences.
  Mr. LEVIN. We first came to know Coretta Scott King as Dr. Martin 
Luther King's wife, but we came to treasure her for the more than 50 
years of courageous and inspiring leadership she gave to our Nation. 
During Dr. King's tragically brief yet profoundly important time as 
America's most prominent civil rights leader, Mrs. King played an 
indispensable role, speaking before church and community groups, 
serving as a pastor's wife, and raising four children. She was Dr. 
King's rock during one of the most turbulent times in our history.
  Mrs. King's heroism and unyielding determination to continue the 
struggle for justice and equality for all could not be more evident 
than in how she responded to a despicable incident in 1956. Mrs. King 
was in her home with her infant daughter, Yolanda, while Dr. King was 
away on one of his many missions for the civil rights movement, 
speaking at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL. Someone threw a 
bomb into the Kings' home, and the bomb exploded. Even though Mrs. King 
and little Yolanda narrowly escaped physical harm that day, the bombing 
failed to deter her. Instead, Mrs. King's involvement in the civil 
rights movement intensified.
  Following her husband's assassination, Coretta Scott King picked up 
his mantle and made clear that his dream, of a just America, was her 
dream too. Over the nearly 40 years that followed, her fight for that 
dream took her to every corner of the world and into every heart that 
loved justice. She established the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for 
Nonviolent Social Change. She worked to advance the cause of justice 
and human rights around the world, speaking out for racial and economic 
justice, women's and children's rights, religious freedom, full 
employment, health care, and education. She championed the national 
holiday in honor of Dr. King's legacy. And, as she carried on Dr. 
King's message, she became an icon of the civil rights movement in her 
own right.
  In September 2004, the Senate passed legislation to honor Mrs. King 
and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., posthumously, with Congress's highest 
honor--the Congressional Gold Medal--for their contributions to the 
Nation. It was my great honor to deliver this news to Mrs. King the 
next day at an awards ceremony sponsored by the Senate Black 
Legislative Staff Caucus, where Mrs. King was honored with their 
Leadership and Achievement Award. Over the next few months, my staff 
worked with Mrs. King, along with the U.S. Mint and Congressman John 
Lewis's staff, in designing the gold medal. In March 2005, Mrs. King 
contributed these words, from some of her favorite lines from Dr. 
King's speeches, to appear on one side of the medal: ``I suggest that 
the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become immediately a subject 
for study for serious experimentation in every field of human conflict, 
by no means excluding the relations between nations. This may well be 
mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community.'' Mrs. 
King offered these lines less than a year ago, reflecting her steadfast 
commitment to nonviolence throughout her entire life.
  Coretta Scott King moved our Nation forward, and we owe her a debt 
that we cannot repay. As we mourn Mrs. King's passing today, let us 
celebrate her exceptional life, and let us honor her by recommitting 
ourselves to the dream the Kings shared of freedom, justice, and 
equality for all people.
  Our thoughts and prayers are with Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and 
Bernice King and all of the King family.

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