Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
She lived from April 27, 1927 to January 30, 2006. She was an American civil rights leader and the wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She worked side-by-side with her husband, taking part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and helping to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. She traveled throughout the world speaking out on behalf of racial and economic justice, women's and children's rights, gay and lesbian dignity, the needs of the poor and homeless, nuclear disarmament and religious freedom. In 1969, she wrote her memoir My Life with Marthin Luther King, Jr..
In 1968, she founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change ("The King Center"). The King Center has as objective to spread the spirit of the principles of nonviolence throughout America's culture. They believe, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did, that poverty, injustice and war must be rendered obsolete. She served as the center's president until 1995, when she passed the reigns to her son Dexter. In 2003, her other son Martin Luther King, III took over the leadership.
In 2005, she met with Barack Obama and told him that when she was feeling burdened by the stress and strain that had been placed on the family as a consequence of the role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement, her husband gave her the following advice:
| "When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone because you will have divine companionship and the support of good people." |
Her son Dexter Scott King was vegan and during a 1995 interview with the Vegetarian Times, he mentioned that his mother had become vegan too.
| "On January 30, 1988, my twenty-seventh
birthday, I became a strict vegetarian. I developed a passion
for health and nutrition. My diet consists of fruits,
vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes only, and has for the past
15 years now."
- Dexter Scott King "Veganism has given me a higher level of awareness and spirituality, primary because the energy associated with eating has shifted to other areas. ... If you're violent to yourself by putting [harmful] things into your body that violate its spirit, it will be difficult not to perpetuate that [violence] onto someone else"
- Dexter Scott King |
In an article about vegetarianism with Ebony in July, 2003 Coretta Scott King said:
| "I feel blessed that I was introduced to this lifestyle more than 12 years ago by Dexter. I prefer to eat mostly raw or 'living' foods. The benefits for me are increased energy, a slowing of the aging process, and I have none of the diseases like hypertension, heart disease and diabetes that many people my age seem to get." |
She was also a very vocal supporter of gay rights. In a 2000 talk at the opening plenary session of the 13th annual Creating Change conference, she said:
| "My husband, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, "We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny... an inescapable network of mutuality,... I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be." Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." |
Quotes are from the 2006 Barack Obama Senate Floor Speech honoring the life of Coretta Scott King, an interview with Dexter Scott King in the October 1995 issue of Vegetarian Times, an article about vegetarianism in the July issue of Ebony, her 2000 talk at the opening plenary session of the 13th annual Creating Change Conference, organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
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