Coretta Scott King was the wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She gained an international reputation as an advocate of civil rights, nonviolence, international peace, full employment, and equal rights for women. She died at the age of 78. She embodies everything good about human beings and were not for her, MLK's voice would not have shined so bright.
King remained largely in the wings of her husband's fight for civil rights, while participating in the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and efforts to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
After her husband was shot and killed on April 4, 1968, King stepped up efforts to promote nonviolence, fight poverty and began work establishing the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. She also led the Coalition of Conscience, which sponsored the 20th Anniversary March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1983.
