RIP Coretta Scott King

[nifer]

'First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement' Remembered

By Hamill R. Harris and Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; 12:12 PM

ATLANTA, Jan. 31 -- Coretta Scott King, who for three decades stood in the place of her slain husband, Martin Luther King Jr., as a bright flame and firm voice of racial justice, died Monday night, her family announced Tuesday.

King, 78, who lived in Atlanta, suffered a stroke in August but had made a brief public appearance on television Jan. 16, during a celebration of Martin Luther King Day. It was unclear immediately where she died.

Universally known as the "first lady of the civil rights movement," she occupied a unique place in American society as the gentle and dignified heiress to the vast and fiery legacy left by her martyred husband.

Her face flashed across TV screens throughout Atlanta's sprawling airport Tuesday morning as the news spread, and as it did, workers there stopped what they were doing to look up and remember.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga), who knew King and her husband well, was waiting to catch a flight back to Washington, moved from group to group, consoling them and remembering her with them.

"Have you heard?" he said, gesturing to the TV screens. "She's gone. Coretta's dead.

"She loved me and I loved her," Lewis, a member of Congress from Atlanta, who worked with both King and her husband in the civil rights movement for many years, told a reporter. "She was the glue that held the civil rights movement together."

Fareed Hakeem, 39, grew up on Auburn street, near Rev. King's Ebenezer Baptist Church. "She meant a great deal to the people of Atlanta," he said. "I just hope people will realize what her legacy meant for this generation."

Her special stature brought forth tributes from across the country.

"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Coretta Scott King," President Bush said in a statement released by the White House. "Mrs. King was a remarkable and courageous woman, and a great civil rights leader. She carried on the legacy of her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including through her extraordinary work at the King Center. Mrs. King's lasting contributions to freedom and equality have made America a better and more compassionate nation."

"It's a bleak morning for me and for many people and yet it's a great morning because we have a chance to look at her and see what she did and who she was," poet Maya Angelou said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"She was a sister-friend to me, we called each other 'children sisters.' She was a great wife, obviously, and a wonderful mother and a great woman, a great American. When I think of great Americans she's one of the people I think of," Angelou said.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), said, "Her loss is shocking not just to the civil rights movement but to progressives throughout the country and the world."

"We will miss her," he told the Associated Press. "But she certainly picked up the baton when it was dropped by her husband's assassination and continued to move forward in the civil rights arena."

"She was truly the first lady of the human rights movement. The only thing worse than losing her is if we never had her," the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York said in a statement released to wire services. "For those of us that were too young to get to know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. very well, we got to know Coretta Scott King as a compassionate, caring, yet firm matriarch of the movement for justice. She was kind and gentle with impeccable grace and dignity, yet firm and strong and immovable under issues that she and her husband committed their lives to."

As Martin Luther King was the father of the civil rights movement, said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), "she was the mother of that movement. They together were the force in this nation.

"In an area where our founding fathers failed -- founding fathers wrote slavery into the Constitution, we fought a civil war, but it wasn't really until we had Dr. King and Coretta Scott King in the '50s that awakened the conscience of the nation so the political leadership of the early '60s could begin what I call the march to progress, that of knocking down walls of discrimination on race, religion, ethnicity and gender, and disability. And we have benefited so much from their leadership and from their inspiration," Kennedy said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"A final point I want to mention is that I've had the good opportunity to get to know the children over the years, and I have seen the time that they have spent with their mother," said Kennedy, whose two slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), worked closely with King. "Their mother was not only a powerful and charismatic figure and leader for our time, but she helped those children grow up to be individuals with a sense of dignity, a sense of pride in their heritage, and their strong commitment to do something for someone else. I admire her for that, as well."

In a statement, the King family said: "We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country."

The family's statement said King died overnight.

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who is close to the family, told NBC's "Today" show that King's daughter Bernice went in to wake her up last night but was unable to do so.

"Her spirit will remain with us just as her husband's has," said Young.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...013100462.html

[red98vett]

Thank you for this. That was very sad news Another icon gone and my prayers are with their family and friends.

[JCarlson2004]

I was so sad to hear of her death. She was a great lady.

[PlatinumYorkies]

She was such a Great woman. May she rest in peace, very sad news but just think she is in a better place....hopefully he was waiting there for her...

[gymbo68]

She was a great lady- May she rest in peace-

[bettyeanne]

Sad news indeed. She will be greatly missed!

[babi1542]

Very sad news!

[nifer]

thanks for replying everyone. i hope she will be an inspiration for us all to speak out and act up against social injustice.

[nifer]

Four U.S. presidents at King funeral
Thousands pay respects to widow of slain civil rights leader

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- President Bush and three former presidents are among the 10,000 people mourning Coretta Scott King at her funeral Tuesday in suburban Atlanta.

In addition to the president, luminaries on hand included first lady Laura Bush, former President Clinton and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former President George H.W. Bush, former President Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter as well as Maya Angelou, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Stevie Wonder.

The presidentordered federal facilities to fly flags at half-staff Tuesday in honor of King, who died last week at age 78.

This week's tributes differed sharply from when then-Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox refused to honor her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., following his 1968 assassination. Maddox refused to attend the funeral, calling the civil rights leader "an enemy of the country."

Coretta Scott King's funeral is taking place at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a 10,000-seat church in Lithonia, where her daughter Bernice is a minister.

Before the funeral, mourners had one last chance to say goodbye to King at the church. Schools closed for the day in DeKalbCounty, where the funeral is being held.

King died January 30 at a clinic in Mexico, where she had sought alternative treatment for advanced ovarian cancer. She also had suffered a stroke and heart attack last year.

Tens of thousands of mourners braved a chilly February rain Monday to pay their final respects at Ebenezer Baptist Church -- where King's husband once preached.

The public viewing at Ebenezer followed one at the Georgia Capitol over the weekend. Coretta Scott King was the first woman and the first African-American to receive such an honor.

"I wanted to pay my respects, and I wanted to say goodbye to her personally," said Diane Cunningham, one of the thousands drawn to Ebenezer. "She is the first lady of the African-American community, and she will be very much missed."

Oprah Winfrey remembered King as a woman of "stalwart grace" during a musical tribute inside the new Ebenezer sanctuary, across the street from the historic church.

"Every time I sat with her, whether she spoke or not, I came away wiser, knowing more about how to live and what it means to be a real woman," Winfrey said. "I felt blessed always to be in her presence. She leaves us all a better America than the America of her childhood."

King's oldest child, Yolanda, offered her family's thanks "for this glorious outpouring of love and support and care that we have felt during this time."

"We stood in the sunshine of her being," Yolanda King said. "Through her inexhaustible giving, we learned to give. Through her faith, we learned the confidence of knowing that peace on Earth is inevitable."

On Monday evening, many of the civil rights leaders who worked alongside King and her husband spoke at the day's second memorial service in the new Ebenezer sanctuary.

CNN's Rusty Dornin and John Murgatroyd contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/07/kin...ice/index.html

[heather_lathrop]

Very sad day! May she rest in peace!

[LaviniaHyacynth]

She was an inspiration for me but I know her dream lives on in all of us that fight to end racism and injustice in this country. As a facilitater for a group in my town called Conversations on Race, I work on these issues everyday. She was a great lady. We have lost two female heroines so close together. Rosa Parks was also a women of tremendous strength.Their contributions to society will live on forever. RIP

[PlatinumYorkies]

I can say from the bottom of my heart..that 6 hours of my life has never meant so much. I was and am truly moved, and still in AHH! Not, by the people so much, but 1 and the words that were spoke by all. I don't know whether it was a superb upbringing, or ethe name King...However, Bernice A. King did not stumble, break, nor shook when she Eulogized her mother in a Grand way. The messages that were delivered fit this Gracious woman that was a light, voice, and a leader to so many. I can't say this enough, but I am moved. I know some will say that this Celebration Of Life, got a little too political...However, the "Movement" was nothing but political... Such, a life, such a way to look at her homegoing and relationship with God. May your journey to Heaven leave joy in our hearts. Let your rest be peaceful and still. Hoping your legacy bring a Change.