Born in Alabama, Coretta Scott studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she met her future husband, Martin Luther King Jr., a graduate student at Boston University. They married in 1953 and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin became minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Following a bus boycott sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955, Montgomery became the center of a nonviolent struggle for Civil Rights that would sweep across the South and transform the King family forever.  

Martin was repeatedly arrested. Their home was bombed. Coretta, while raising their four children, played a key role in the movement. It was only after her husband’s assassination in April 1968, however, that Coretta came into her own as a leader of the cause. Speaking at a service in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta two days after Martin’s death, she repeated her husband’s words: “If a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live.” Only days later, she spoke at a rally in Memphis, delivering a speech based on notes Martin had prepared for the occasion.  

In the years to come she was a constant voice for peace, social justice, and human rights. To support her husband’s legacy, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and campaigned to see his birthday recognized as a national holiday.  

Coretta Scott King died on January 30, 2006.  

“When Good Friday comes, these are the moments in life when we feel there’s no hope. But then, Easter comes.” —Coretta Scott King