Humanitarian and Civil Rights Activist

1927--2006

"If American women would increase their voting turnout by ten percent, I think we would see an end to all of

the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children.“

Coretta Scott King

April 27, 1927 - Coretta Scott is born in Perry County, Ala.

1947 - Begins attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She would earn a bachelor's in music and education and later study concert singing at Boston's New Egland Conservatory of Music.

June 18, 1953 - Marries the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Marion, Ala.

Nov. 17, 1955 - Yolanda Denise is born in Montgomery, Ala.

Coretta, the Mother

Coretta Scott King plays piano and sings with her children Yolanda, Marty, Dexter and Bernice at home after church

Jan. 30, 1956 - A bomb is thrown onto the Kings' Montgomery home. Coretta King is in the house with baby Yolanda. No one is injured.

Oct. 23, 1957 - Martin Luther King III is born in Montgomery.

A Family TogetherMartin Luther King Jr. eats Sunday dinner with his wife, Coretta Scott King, and their young children at home in Atlanta

Jan. 24, 1960 - The King family moves from Montgomery to Atlanta, where King becomes co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.

Jan. 30, 1961 - Dexter Scott King is born in Atlanta.

March 28, 1963 - Bernice Albertine King is born in Atlanta.

Aug. 28, 1963 - At the March on Washington, King delivers his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

Nobel Peace Prize

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King during a news conference following the announcement that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Selma Alabama March

Martin Luther King, Jr. with his wife Coretta Scott King and colleagues during the famous march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery, March 1965.

Side by Side

Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta march together along a rural Mississippi road with the March Against Fear.

Coretta Scott King and her daughters, Yolanda and Bernice, talk with a fellow parishioner outside Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

April 4, 1968 King is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

Coretta Scott King holds her sleeping daughter Bernice at the funeral of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center

June 26, 1968 - Coretta King founds the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta.

Author

Coretta Scott King displaying her book My Life With Martin Luther King Jr. February 9, 1970.

Coretta Scott King speaks at a peace demonstration in Washington, D.C., 1970.

Martin Luther King DayNov. 3, 1983 - President Reagan signs a bill establishing the third Monday of every January as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday.

Picketing ApartheidCoretta Scott King walks a picket line with others to protest apartheid in South Africa, in this November, 1984 at the South African Embassy in Washington. King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination

into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality.

40th Anniversary Bus Boycott

the 40th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Coretta Scott King, left, Jaunita Abernathy, center, and Rosa Parks at Alabama State University on Dec 2, 1995 to commemorate

Coretta Scott King speaks at a commemorative service honoring her late husband at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1997

First Lady of Civil Rights

“When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone.”

Coretta Scott King

is inducted 1997 “A Museum of Living History”

A Woman with a Purpose

Coretta Scott King addresses a large crowd at Brown Chapel AME church during a pre-march rally before the reenactment of the crossing of the Edmund

Pettus Bridge Sunday, March 6, 2005 in Selma, Ala.

A Dream to be Carried OnAug. 16, 2005 - Suffers a stroke.

Jan 16, 2006 - Watches the King Day ceremonies on television, the 20th anniversary of the federal holiday.

Jan. 31, 2006 - The family announces she died overnight

A Place of Honor

Coretta Scott King being carried by Georgia State Troops to lie in state in the Capital in Atlanta Georgia, Saturday, February 4, 2006

Coretta Scott King lies in honor as mourners pass by in Atlanta on February 4, 2006. The wife of the slain civil rights leader who died on January 30th at the age of 78 is the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor in Georgia.

Four to five thousand people an hour came to view King lying in honor.

In memory of Coretta Scott King

Complied and Edited bySusan Ging Lent