[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 13 (Tuesday, February 7, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E78-E79]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE LIFE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF MRS. CORETTA SCOTT KING

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 1, 2006

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Ms. 
Coretta Scott King, a civil rights icon and the widow of Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr., who died January 30, 2006, at the age of 78. Coretta 
Scott was born and raised on a farm near Marion, Alabama, where she 
knew little racial prejudice. However, living in town to attend high 
school, young Coretta learned firsthand of the harassment and violence 
directed at African-Americans. In 1942, at the age of 15, she was 
personally exposed to this hatred when the Scott home was set on fire 
on Thanksgiving night.
  Church and music became Coretta Scott's salvation, and in 1945, she 
left for Antioch College in Ohio where as one of three African-American 
students in her class, she began to study music and education. After 
graduation, Coretta ventured off to the New England Conservatory of 
Music in Boston to study concert singing. It was in Boston where 
Coretta met Martin Luther King Jr., who was then studying for his 
doctorate in theology. She later said, ``Even at the time we were 
courting, Martin was deeply concerned--and indignant--with the plight 
of the Negro in the United States.''
  The two married in 1953 and within the following decade became the 
parents to two sons and two daughters. In her new life as a married 
woman, Mrs. King gave up music to take on the role of a pastor's wife 
at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where Dr. King 
became the seminal figure in the civil rights movement. Mrs. King 
joined her husband's pursuit of civil rights, and occasionally 
substituted for him as a speaker. They traveled the world, observing 
severe poverty and all its consequences, and together they learned the 
art of nonviolent protest from the disciples of Mahatma Gandhi. 
Throughout their married life, Mrs. King was an equal partner in Dr. 
King's tireless efforts to pursue justice, equality and peace, and was 
by his side in Oslo in 1964 when he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

[[Page E79]]

  On April 4, 1968, Mrs. King learned of her husband's assassination 
through a telephone call from Reverend Jesse Jackson. While supporting 
a sanitation workers' strike, Dr. King was shot on a Memphis motel 
balcony. In her autobiography, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., 
Mrs. King recalled, ``Because his task was not finished, I felt that I 
must rededicate myself to the completion of his work.'' Indeed, she was 
compelled to fully immerse herself in the nonviolent civil rights 
movement that her husband led. Many wives become spokespersons for 
their husband's causes, yet Coretta Scott King was unique; an ardent 
activist in the fight against injustice, Mrs. King brought a new energy 
to the civil rights movement. Giving hundreds of speeches and leading 
countless marches, Mrs. King overcame the challenges of widowhood and 
witnessed the successes of the civil rights movement and her husband's 
unfulfilled dreams.
  Neverending in her commitment to justice, Mrs. King was appointed by 
President Carter to the United Nations General Assembly, where she 
devoted herself to the development of Third World nations. She joined 
the fight to end apartheid and lobbied the U.S. Congress for sanctions 
against South Africa. Mrs. King also coordinated a 15-year campaign to 
keep her husband's memory alive, culminating in 1983 with the passage 
of legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers and Congresswoman 
Shirley Chisholm to commemorate her husband's work with a federal 
holiday. Dr. and Mrs. King have been succeeded by their four children 
who have each followed in their parents' footsteps, carrying with them 
strong hearts, minds and voices in pursuit of justice and peace.
  Two years ago, I was invited to join a civil rights pilgrimage to 
Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. The journey was a remarkable 
experience. Led by Congressman John Lewis, a number of my colleagues in 
the House and the Senate and I visited the sites of many of the civil 
rights struggles, including the Kings' own Dexter Avenue Baptist 
Church. We experienced these places with some of the activists that led 
the movement and relived the moments through their eyes. To hear them 
share their account of the very church we were sitting in being 
attacked by a mob of segregationists was extraordinary.
  Those of us who were too young to remember well the civil rights 
movement continue to ask ourselves what would we have done? Would we 
have stood up, would we have questioned those in power, would we have 
demanded equality and justice? Or would we, like so many Americans, 
have remained indifferent? The best answer we can find to that question 
of what we would have done is answered by what are we doing now to 
advance the cause of justice and equality. In 1960s Alabama, Coretta 
Scott King and Martin Luther King, Jr., battled overt bigotry. Today, 
we arm ourselves against silent intolerance. While we must look to our 
past and consider how far we have come, we must keep an eye toward the 
future knowing that the movement is not over and that each one of us 
must continue to dedicate ourselves to pursuing an America with equal 
opportunity for all.

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