Coretta Scott King and AP reporter Kathryn
Johnson on the campus of Atlanta University, Ga., reviewing plans for
The King Center, 1968. (AP Photo) )
Former Associated Press journalist Kathryn Johnson was a
groundbreaking civil rights reporter, the only journalist Coretta Scott
King invited into her home the night of Martin Luther King's
assassination in 1968. In a new memoir, Johnson recounts her
private moments with the Kings, and adds firsthand insights to the
historical record of the tumultuous era. Published by RosettaBooks with the AP, the memoir is called My Time with the Kings, subtitled "A Reporter's Recollections of Martin, Coretta and the Civil Rights Movement." The following chapter, 'On The Inside', is an excerpt from that book.
On the day of King's funeral, April 9, 1968, I
awoke at dawn to a pink sky, the rising sun burning off mist and
splashing over azaleas and pink and white dogwood trees in full bloom.
The early spring beauty seemed a strange
backdrop for the solemn tone of the day, the coming burial services and
the havoc that we had been warned might occur in Atlanta. In the five
days since King's assassination, violence had shaken more than a dozen
U.S. cities.
I'd left home to drive to the bureau to write a story about the
expected arrival of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. I left
instructions that my story was to be held until I could verify that she
had actually visited the King home. A colleague drove me to their home
so I wouldn't have to deal with my car.
I needed to be inside the King house early,
since the Secret Service would be extremely busy handling large crowds.
Every day, Coretta had to inform the agents that I could be there. But
on the morning of the funeral, with the entire world focused on the
tragic and historic event, I thought asking her again to vouch for my
presence would be graceless.
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Source: NBC News
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