5 Facts About Coretta Scott King
24January 19, 2015 by Paula Reed Nancarrow
Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, lead freedom marchers in Montgomery, Ala., in 1965. AP Photo
Coretta Scott King fought for 15 years after her husband’s assassination to get Martin Luther King Day made a federal holiday.
We should remember her as well. Because there are things young women will not learn from a Lifetime Movie like Betty and Coretta or a tribute song by Teena Marie. Here are five that mean something to me.
1. She didn’t want to be a pastor’s wife.
They were introduced by a mutual friend. “I kept hearing about this young man who was so eligible and all that, but she said he’s a preacher, he’s a minister… So I just dismissed it.” Partly, she admits, this was due to a stereotype she had of ignorant, overly pious country preachers. Partly it was what she believed the life of a minister’s family to be like.
I didn’t want to be a minister’s wife and subject my family to living in a parsonage and for my children to be, to become – you know how everybody talks about the pastor’s children and what have you – I just felt that they should not be subjected to that. I just didn’t want that kind of a life.
Coretta and the four King children, playing piano
2. It was not love at first sight.
At least not for Coretta. This man who told her during their first conversation on the phone, before they had even met, that he was Napoleon and she was his Waterloo, turned out to be, like Napoleon, short. He had shaved his mustache “because he was pledging Alpha,” which made him look like a little boy. She was not impressed.
He did turn out to be a good conversationalist. Though she did not appreciate being subjected to a litmus test over lunch.
The conversation had something to do with communism versus capitalism and I made an intelligent comment and he said ‘I see you know something other than music.’ And I thought to myself, of course I do, I’ve been to Antioch College.
On the way back to the conservatory, he told her she had everything he’d ever wanted in a wife. She scoffed at his certainty after just one meeting, with both of them in their first year of their respective schools. But he insisted, “When I finished my two years I’ll pastor a church and I’ll need a wife and I know what I want.”
And her? “I was very clear what I wanted to do in my life and…I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. But this young man was so persistent and so determined.”
The End of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
3. God speaks in mysterious ways.
Coretta had prayed for guidance, and the answer seemed to come in a dream:
In the dream Daddy King appeared. I had not known Rev. King, Sr. …He was in an open convertible… I was on the sidelines and he was just smiling at me as if he was approving me. And I remember waking up thinking this must be … the sign I was looking for. And I felt a sense of relief, as if some burden had been lifted from my shoulders.
Yet the first time she met Daddy King was not auspicious. He made it clear that her plans of a career in music were not suitable for the wife of a Baptist minister. He wanted to know if she took his son “seriously,” and said that if she didn’t, there were many other women with “a lot to offer” that his son was interested in. I’ve yet to find a source that tells me what his son had to say about that. Coretta responded that she had “a lot to offer” as well.
The couple announced their intention to marry in the Atlanta Daily World on Valentine’s Day, 1953. King, Sr. did finally give his blessing – not without protest – and performed the ceremony, which was held at the Scott home in June. Coretta had the vow to obey removed from the ceremony. For a Baptist wedding in the 1950s, this was very unusual. I’ve yet to find a source that tells me what Daddy King had to say about that.
4. She did not give up music without a fight.
She participated in “freedom concerts,” which consisted of poetry recitation, singing, and lectures demonstrating the history of the civil rights movement. The proceeds from the concerts were donated to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
5. Nor did she give up her voice on other matters.
Martin Luther King, Jr. himself limited Coretta’s role in the movement, and expected her to be a housewife and raise their children. But she made speeches, and worked to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. And King was not above letting her “test the waters” before he came out publicly against the Vietnam War.
In 1966 in New Lady magazine she criticized the sexism of the civil rights movement, saying in part, “Not enough attention has been focused on the roles played by women in the struggle. By and large, men have formed the leadership in the civil rights struggle but…women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement.” Just months before her husband’s assassination, she participated in a Women’s Strike for Peace at the capital of Washington, D.C. with over five thousand others.
All of this was before she joined the ranks of Myrlie Evers and Betty Shabazz as a “Movement Widow.”
Coretta Scott King leads a “March on Memphis” 09 April 1968, five days after the assassination of her husband. (AFP/Getty Images)
She may well have had a stronger voice as a widow than she could ever have had as a wife, but it was always her voice.
If you’d like to hear more of that voice, the Visionary Leadership Project’s YouTube channel is one of the best places to start.
Paula Reed Nancarrow 
Excellent work. Enjoyed reading this. Insightful and inspiring.
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Aww, Lynne. Thanks. And Happy Belated Birthday!
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What a wonderful story about a wonderful woman. I can understand why you identify with some aspect of her journey. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you, Norah. There was so much more, I had a very hard time keeping it to blog length. But one thing you might be particularly interested in is the Coretta Scott King Awards that the American Library Association has been giving out since 1971. (Apparently librarians act faster than Congress). There’s a lovely list of all the books, with covers illustrated, summaries given and Amazon links here: http://aalbc.com/books/related.htm
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Thanks Paula. I will check it out. It certainly sounds interesting. :)
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Thank you, Paula, for bringing Coretta so vividly to life. I think it’s hard for women generally to be supportive without being overshadowed by a powerful man. Makes me think of Hilary Clinton as potentially your next president after standing by her man through thick and thin. I wonder if we can expect something future from Michelle Obama
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I think Michelle Obama has it a lot easier than Coretta ever did. Though I don’t think it is ever easy to be the First Lady- or to have your family in the limelight all the time. When I was doing the research and looking for images, some idiot had pictures side by side: one, the haunting, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Coretta at Martin’s funeral with 5 year old Bernice in her lap; the other, of Michelle listening to her husband’s speech with a whiny and tired kid squirming about. You could cut the judgment with a knife and fork.
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Now this was inspiring! I’m a pastors kid so I know something about “…how everybody talks about the pastor’s children ” Especially the rebellious ones :) Thank you for sharing
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And especially in the pews. I still remember how judgmental my dad was when we were little. “The minister’s kids are always the worst-behaved ones in the church.” At one point when we were not too well behaved he took a blackboard into the living room (we were a School Principal’s kids, not a Minister’s kids) and diagrammed how we were to enter the church, and how we were to sit – Kid – Parent – Kid – Parent – Kid. It wasn’t until I was a minister’s wife myself that I realized I’d be a single parent in the pew for the entire duration.
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lol!!! I had to hide where my dad and mum won’t see if not I will be scolded for not raising my hands or praying! I prayed to God not to make me a ministers wife and He answered!
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This one tidbit impresses me the most about her: “Coretta had the vow to obey removed from the ceremony.” A great topic for today, Paula. In a perfect world we’d rename the holiday “Coretta and Martin Luthor King Day.”
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In a perfect world, oh my… there would have been no need, no need… but yes. That impressed me too.
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Thanks Paula. I saw Selma last week (fantastic movie), and one of the intriguing relationships was between MLK and CSK. The fact that she was equally as ambitious as he was, and had a music career that she sacrificed, was not really developed in the movie. Now that I’ve read about it, many of the onscreen tensions take on an even greater depth.
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I’ve heard great things about it, Greg – though interestingly, the article I found in Delaware Online that told me the most about where it was historically accurate and where it was not said the MLK/CSK relationship was at its most complex and realistic here, compared to previous Hollywood portrayals. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the film.
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Interesting! Great blog and so timely!
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Timely is what blogging’s all about…or so I’m told. ;-)
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Thank you for this. I really enjoyed reading it. Coretta Scott King is certainly a hero in her own right.
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Thank you, Kristin. She certainly was.
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[…] a product of that culture and their time. I tend to focus on women – last week’s blog post on Coretta Scott King being a fair example. He tends to focus on men. The wardrobe challenges are easier, for one […]
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A very beautiful piece for a beautiful woman.
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She was lovely, wasn’t she? And incredibly photogenic.
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[…] Allen’s words in mind, we also have this piece, from 2015, with five facts about Coretta Scott King, who continued working for civil rights after the assassination of her […]
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Really interesting. We don’t often here of the strength of history’s women. Thank you for this gorgeous post. The photographs are beautiful.
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A fabulous post! Such an eye – opener. Embarrassingly, I’d never thought much about her before reading this. It seems so unfair. Thank you fir sharing💖
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