What Coretta Scott King Would Tell Us Now

By Goldie Taylor

So much of the work King and her husband devoted their lives to remains undone. With the world remaining too full of suffering and injustice, we need King’s example more than ever. 

MEMPHIS—When I first set eyes upon her, she was seated in the pulpit of a small red brick church surrounded by luminaries—an ecumenical gathering of clergy and civil rights leaders from around the world. Then-President Bill Clinton delivered a rousing address as the congregation, pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in the freshly polished pews, repeatedly leapt to its feet with applause.  

They had come to celebrate the 67th birthday of her slain husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and it had only been 10 years since the recognition of a national holiday in his honor. His tomb, situated in an outer courtyard between the church and the King Center offices, is enshrined above an ever-flowing fountain and adorned with a flame that never goes out.

As concerned as Coretta Scott King had been about eradicating poverty and advancing equal rights abroad, she never forgot that there was work yet undone here in the U.S. For her, the torch always burned bright. A posthumous memoir, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, was released by journalist Barbara Reynolds. The book, as told to Reynolds over the course of 30 years, sheds light on her life and gives new voice to a woman who had been anything but silent. 

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Source: The Daily Beast