Honoring the Life and Accomplishments of Mrs. Coretta Scott King

Floor Speech

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan for yielding. I could not let the moment go by without at least a comment.

During the mid-1960s, the King family moved into the neighborhood where I lived and worked. That is in the North Lawndale community on the west side of the City of Chicago in the 1500 block of South Hamlin. They brought with them an aura of excitement.

I was a young schoolteacher who taught not very far from the location, and my friend and I would leave school in the afternoon and come by the King house. It was really an apartment. Sometimes Dr. King would come out and just kind of talk with us for a moment or two. They often ate at a restaurant, Edna's Restaurant, and Mr. Conyers may know it. They would bring to the restaurant a whole horde of people. Everybody would come and watch.

And so on behalf of all of the people who lived in that community, I simply express condolences to the King family, but also express the great feeling of joy and inspiration that they brought to our community when they lived on the west side of Chicago during the mid-1960s as they came north with the northern crusade.

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Mrs. Coretta Scott King. She was the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and an important figure in the civil rights movement in her own right. She passed away Monday night in California.

Coretta Scott King was born in Marion, AL, on April 27, 1927. She attended Antioch College in Ohio and earned a B.A. in music and education. During her postgraduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston she met her future husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., who was studying systematic theology at the nearby Boston University. They were married on June 18, 1953 in her hometown of Marion.

While she devoted most of her time to raising their 4 children, her husband's prominent involvement in the civil rights movement meant that she, too, was deeply involved. She took part in sit-ins at segregated restaurants, organized marches, and performed in many ``freedom concerts.'' She even marched with Dr. Martin Luther King from Selma, AL, to Montgomery in 1965. Just days after her husband was slain she and three of her children traveled to Memphis to lead a march honoring his life.

She not only honored his life but also ensured that his legacy would live on. In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Non-Violent Social Change in Atlanta, GA, as well as the Coalitions of Conscience to advocate for human rights issues.

King has carried the message of nonviolence and her husband's dream to nearly every corner of the globe. In 1962 she served as a delegate to the 17-nation disarmament conference in Geneva, Switzerland. She was the first woman to deliver the class address to Harvard University students and the first woman to preach at a service in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. She stood beside Nelson Mandela when he became the first democratically elected president of South Africa and she was an eye-witness to the signing of the Middle East peace accords.

Coretta Scott King was a woman of great influence, wisdom, compassion, and determination. She was a woman who devoted her life to making our world a better place. I leave you with a quote from Coretta Scott King, ``Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.''

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