Lifelong civil rights activist Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) is this week’s #RespectYourElders feature.
Coretta became involved with the civil rights movement while studying music and education at Antioch College, where she joined the campus chapter of the NAACP. After college, she moved to Boston to study concert singing and violin at the New England Conservatory of Music. While in Boston, she met and married Martin Luther King Jr.
As Martin became a leader of the civil rights movement in Alabama, Coretta also worked for the cause, joining protest marches, speaking out publically and hosting Freedom Concerts to spread the word of the movement and raise money.
After her husband’s assassination, Coretta’s activism continued. She founded The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and ran educational and community programs there until her retirement in the 1990s. Until her death at 78, Coretta remained active in causes including economic justice, racial equality, women’s rights and LGBT rights.
Respect Your Elders is a weekly CMSS social media feature. If you would like to recommend someone for a future post, please tweet @CMSSChicago using the hashtag #RespectYourElders, or post on the CMSS Facebook page.
Photo: “P38128-03-398h” by White House by Tina Hager – White House. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P38128-03-398h.jpg#/media/File:P38128-03-398h.jpg