The life story of Coretta Scott King-wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and singular twentieth-century American civil rights activist-as
told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to one of her closest friends
Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising black parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. One of the first black scholarship students recruited to
Antioch College, a committed pacifist, and a civil rights activist, she was an avowed feminist-a graduate student determined to pursue her own career-when she met Martin Luther King Jr., a
Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs and racial justice goals, she married King, and events promptly thrust
her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, a marcher, a negotiator, and a crucial fundraiser in support of world-changing
achievements.
As a widow and single mother of four, while butting heads with the all-male African American leadership of the times, she championed gay rights and AIDS awareness, founded the King Center for
Nonviolent Social Change, lobbied for fifteen years to help pass a bill establishing the US national holiday in honor of her slain husband, and was a powerful international presence, serving as
a UN ambassador and playing a key role in Nelson Mandela’s election.
Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an independent-minded black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and
hopeful in the face of terrorism and violent hatred every single day of her life.
This program includes archival recordings of Coretta Scott King and is read by Phylicia Rashad and January LaVoy.
Phylicia Rashad is an actress, singer and stage director. She is known for roles in television shows such as Empire, Psych, and as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Her voice-over credits
include spots in The Cleveland Show, Little Bill and Sofia the First. Rashad has also appeared in such films as For Colored Girls, Good Deeds, and Creed.
