7 things that you may not know about Coretta Scott King (1927-2003)

1)Coretta Scott King was born on the 27th of April 1927 in Perry County, Alabama. Her parents, Obadiah and Bernice Scott, were farmers who owned land in the county since the American Civil War.

 2)At the age of 10, she had to drop out of school to help pick cotton just so her family would have enough money to put food on the table. Despite these challenges, she would still wind up graduating from Lincoln Normal School in 1945 and earn a scholarship to study music in Boston.

3)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.

4)On January 30th, 1956 the King family home was bombed when a brick was thrown onto the porch. Coretta and her daughter, Yolanda, were unharmed and when Coretta’s father insisted she leave Montgomery and go back to Atlanta. She refused.

5)When her husband was assassinated, Mrs. King was given thousands of letters and telegrams offering her sympathy and support. One message, however, held much more importance than any other for her. It came from the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald.

6) She kept her husband’s legacy alive through her own activism. After her husband’s death, King founded the artin Luther King Jr Center for nonviolent social change  in Atlanta, Georgia, and served as its president for more than a decade. Coretta worked for years to make her husband’s birthday, January 15th into a holiday. It wasn’t until 1986 that she succeeded in making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday, though it always occurs on the 3rd Monday of January.

7)She was against apartheid. She was part of several protests against apartheid in South Africa, and lobbied for the release of Nelson Mandela. She traveled several times to the country to meet with anti-apartheid activists and to support black South Africans affected by state-sanctioned oppression.

 

7 things that you may not know about Martin Luther King

7 things that you may not know about Martin Luther King

1) King’s birth name was Michael, not Martin.
The civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. In 1934, however, his father traveled to Germany and became inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. As a result, King Sr. changed his own name as well as that of his 5-year-old son.

2) According to the King Center, the civil rights leader went to jail nearly 30 times.

3) In 1956, the King’s home was bombed, in response to his involvement with the Montgomery Bus Boycott the year before. Though his wife and first born daughter were home at the time, no one, thankfully, was injured.

4) He escaped an assassination attempt a decade before his death. On September 20, 1958, King was in Harlem signing copies of his new book, “Stride Toward Freedom,” in Blumstein’s department store when he was approached by Izola Ware Curry. The woman asked if he was Martin Luther King Jr. After he said yes, Curry said, “I’ve been looking for you for five years,” and she plunged a seven-inch letter opener into his chest.

5) He was under surveillance by the FBI for years

6) Though he died at only age 39, medical autopsy revealed that his heart was like a 60 yr. old, thought mostly to be due to stress.

7) Dr. King was the author of many books and famous speeches. He is known as one of the greatest communicators of all time. It is known that one of his most memorable speeches, I Have a Dream, was improvised at the end when he left the prepared text in response to gospel singer Mahalia Jackson’s cry, “Tell them about the dream Martin”

Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King