King Holiday Tributes
to Honor His Wife
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, January 13, 2007
ATLANTA -- On a recent
afternoon, Jeffrey and Liza Dunn brought their daughter and niece to the center
dedicated to the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., where the family
took a moment to sit by the crypt of the civil rights icon and his wife, Coretta.
There, at the reflecting pool, the Plainfield, N.J., couple told the girls about
King's dreams of racial harmony, economic equality and world peace. They
also spoke of a dedicated widow, devoted mother and matriarch of the civil
rights movement, who gracefully struggled against war, poverty and racism for
years even after her husband was killed.
''Their partnership is the foundation of everything we've benefited from,''
Jeffrey Dunn, 49, said. ''And even in her absence, she leaves a legacy, a
commitment to his dream.''
This year's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, first observed more than two decades
ago, will be the first without Coretta Scott King, who died nearly a year ago.
Her absence at the holiday activities held each year in King's hometown of
Atlanta will be a reminder that the standard bearer of King's vision is now gone
-- and that the holiday has evolved to reflect the accomplishments and mission
of both the dreamer and the dream keeper.
''Her commitment and her accomplishments were equal to his,'' Spelman College
history professor William Jelani Cobb said. ''To view her as an equal in
helping to establish racial democracy in America would be fitting.''
Coretta Scott King, who lived twice as long as Martin Luther King Jr., fought to
preserve his legacy -- building a center of nonviolence bearing the civil rights
icon's name, and working for years to establish his birthday as a federal
holiday. Atlanta's five-day King holiday observance, which began Jan. 11,
features tributes to Coretta Scott King, who will be honored Saturday at the
annual Salute to Greatness dinner. The event is the primary fundraiser for
the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Coretta Scott King suffered a stroke in August 2005 and then battled ovarian
cancer. She seemed to be recovering when she smiled and waved during a
standing ovation at last year's Salute to Greatness dinner on the weekend of
King Day. Two weeks later, she died.
Until the end, Coretta Scott King not only carried on her husband's teachings,
but she extrapolated the principles that he lived for into a contemporary
context, speaking out on issues from the war in Iraq to gay marriage.
After presiding over her husband's birthday celebration for nearly four decades,
her seat in the pulpit of King's Ebenezer Baptist Church was empty last year for
the first time.
''She was able to inspire people and bring them together under the memory of
Martin Luther King and what he stood for,'' said Steve Klein, spokesman for The
King Center. ''She became sort of a living symbol. She was more than
just a widow, but somebody who was involved.''
For 15 years, Coretta Scott King worked alongside her husband, and after his
assassination in 1968, she kept fighting injustice. Within months of his
death, the grieving widow established what would become The King Center -- the
first institution built in memory of a black leader -- in the basement of the
couple's northwest Atlanta home.
On Jan. 15, 1969, she celebrated what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s
40th birthday. Each Jan. 15, for 35 more times, she publicly remembered
him at events at his tomb and his church, and helped the rest of the country
remember him.
''He was much more of a marquis figure, but without her, there's no telling what
his legacy would've been,'' Cobb said. ''She essentially molded and shaped
the way that his legacy was molded and interpreted.''
The service at Ebenezer Baptist Church -- where King preached from 1960 to 1968
and where his widow remained a member until her death -- and the wreath laying
at his nearby tomb became iconic symbols of the day long before it gained
federal recognition.
''She was there every year,'' Coretta Scott King's friend and civil rights
comrade, Evelyn Lowery, recalled. ''She was determined to carry out
whatever she could that he stood for, to make sure that his philosophies and his
presence were still felt.''
Over the years, The King Center grew. And King's widow pushed for the
national holiday, finally getting it in January 1986, on King's 57th birthday.
Today, King's birthday is celebrated in some form in more than 100 countries,
according to The King Center.
Liza Dunn said she believes people will now think of both Kings on the national
holiday that bears the name of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of
the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.
''She brought a lot of class to his image,'' Dunn said as she walked between the
King crypt and the eternal flame that burns near the gravesite. ''She
represented the softer side of King, and for those who didn't know his
philosophy, she gave something to his cause.''
On the Net: The King Center:
http://thekingcenter.org
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