[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 13 (Tuesday, February 7, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 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. JOHN LEWIS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 1, 2006

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, Coretta Scott King was a radiant 
symbol of the best that the American South and this nation have to 
offer. She was beautiful, charming, graceful and dignified. She was a 
shining light who had the ability to brighten the dark places, to bring 
hope where there was hopelessness.
  I first met her in 1957 when I was a 17-year-old student in 
Nashville. She was traveling around America, especially in the South, 
telling the story of the Civil Rights Movement through song. I will 
never forget it. She looked like an opera star standing on stage. She 
wore a lovely pearl-white dress with layers of cascading ruffles 
falling gently around her. She would sing a little and then talk a 
little, and through her singing and talks she inspired an entire 
generation.
  She was more than the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. She was a 
leader in her own right. She was the glue that held the Civil Rights 
Movement together and the strength that sustained one of the most 
charismatic leaders of our time. Long before she married Dr. King, she 
was an activist for non-violence, traveling to a conference in Europe 
with Women Strike for Peace to discuss the dangers of atmospheric 
nuclear testing.
  Though she tasted the bitter fruits of segregation and racial 
discrimination, Coretta Scott King was prepared for a privileged life. 
She was well-educated and married a gifted minister from a prominent 
family. Just like any other mother she wanted to raise her four 
children in peace. But when an opportunity came for her to actualize 
the philosophy of non-violent change, she did not ignore her 
convictions.
  Along with her husband and the more than 50 thousand black people of 
Montgomery, she responded to the courage of Rosa Parks, who on December 
1, 1955, refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Alabama. That 
simple act launched the modern-day Civil Rights Movement and changed 
Coretta King's life forever.
  Her commitment to non-violence led her to trade her privilege to live 
under the constant threat of brutality. Her home was bombed, her 
husband was repeatedly jailed, people she knew were killed, her 
husband's life was always in jeopardy. And finally one day he was 
assassinated by a gunman's bullet.
  She did not become bitter or hostile. She did not hide in some dark 
corner, but she drew on her faith in the transformative power of peace. 
And a few days after the assassination, she led striking workers 
through the streets of Memphis. All the days of her life, she would 
travel throughout the South, America, and the world urging respect for 
the dignity of humanity.
  She went all out to create a living memorial to her husband called 
the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, one of 
the most visited landmarks in Atlanta. She met with President Reagan, 
who was not inclined to sign the legislation, but in the end he could 
not deny her. She used her prominence to mobilize the American people 
and built a bi-partisan coalition in Congress to make her husband's 
birthday a national holiday. Because of her efforts, generations yet 
unborn will learn his message of peace, and they will hear about his 
struggle for equal justice in America.

  I loved Coretta Scott King. She was so warm, so genuine, so caring. 
For 20 years, she always sent me a card or a book on my birthday. I 
will cherish those mementos always.
  I will remember Coretta Scott King as a dear friend. But the 
historians will remember her as one of the founding mothers of the new 
America, for through her noble acts, she helped liberate us all. This 
nation is a better nation, and we are a better people because she 
passed this way. However, she was not only a citizen of America, she 
was a citizen of the world, a world still yearning to build the Beloved 
Community, a world still yearning to make peace with itself. Above all, 
Coretta Scott King personified the beautiful, peaceful soul of a non-
violent movement that still has the power to transform America, that 
still has the power to change the world.

                          ____________________