Coretta Scott King

== Legacy ==
Coretta was viewed during her lifetime and posthumously as having strived to preserve her husband's legacy. The King Center, which she created the year of his assassination, allowed her husband's tomb to be memorialized. King was buried with her husband after her death, on February 7, 2006.  King "fought to preserve his legacy" and her construction of the King Center is said to have aided in her efforts.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1988&dat=20070113&id=HW8iAAAAIBAJ&pg=1459,797314|title=King holiday tributes to honor legacy, wife Coretta who died last year|first=Errin|last=Haines|work=[[Argus-Press]]|date=January 13, 2007|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043605/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1988&dat=20070113&id=HW8iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Hq0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1459,797314|archive-date=October 19, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

King has been linked and associated with [[Jacqueline Kennedy]] and [[Ethel Kennedy]], as the three all lost their husbands to assassinations. The three were together when Coretta flew to Los Angeles after the [[assassination of Robert F. Kennedy]] to be with Ethel and shared "colorblind compassion".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-02-05/news/0602050381_1_coretta-scott-king-widows-first-lady|title=Remembering the widows|date=February 5, 2006|work=Chicago Tribune|first=Michael James|last=Moore|access-date=January 15, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116091725/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-02-05/news/0602050381_1_coretta-scott-king-widows-first-lady|archive-date=January 16, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> She has also been compared to [[Michelle Obama]], the first African-American [[First Lady of the United States]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bet.com/news/national/photos/2013/01/yes-we-will-king-and-obama.html?_escaped_fragment_=010913-national-yes-two-men-one-vision-coretta-scott-king-michelle-obama#!010913-national-yes-two-men-one-vision-coretta-scott-king-michelle-obama|title=Pretty and Smart Wives|publisher=[[BET]]|access-date=January 16, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116202400/http://www.bet.com/news/national/photos/2013/01/yes-we-will-king-and-obama.html?_escaped_fragment_=010913-national-yes-two-men-one-vision-coretta-scott-king-michelle-obama#!010913-national-yes-two-men-one-vision-coretta-scott-king-michelle-obama|archive-date=January 16, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

She is seen as being primarily responsible for the creation of the federal [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day]]. The holiday is now observed in all fifty states and has been since 2000. The first observance of the holiday after her death was commemorated with speeches, visits to the couple's tomb, and the opening of a collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers. Her sister-in-law [[Christine King Farris]] said, "It is in her memory and her honor that we must carry this program on. This is as she would have it."<ref name=Observance />

On February 7, 2017, Republicans in the Senate voted that Senator [[Elizabeth Warren]] had violated [[Standing Rules of the United States Senate, Rule XIX|Senate rule 19]] during the debate on attorney general nominee Senator [[Jeff Sessions]], claiming that she impugned his character when she quoted statements made about Sessions by Coretta and Senator [[Ted Kennedy]]. "Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to happen", Coretta wrote in a 1986 letter to Senator [[Strom Thurmond]], which Warren attempted to read on the Senate floor.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/08/politics/elizabeth-warren-coretta-scott-king-letter-jeff-sessions/index.html|title=The Coretta Scott King Letter Elizabeth Warren was Trying to Read|date=February 8, 2017|work=CNN|access-date=February 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209200053/http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/08/politics/elizabeth-warren-coretta-scott-king-letter-jeff-sessions/index.html|archive-date=February 9, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> This action prohibited Warren from further participating in the debate on Sessions' nomination for [[United States Attorney General]]. Instead, she stepped into a nearby room and continued reading Coretta's letter while streaming live on the Internet.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/02/07/republicans-vote-to-rebuke-elizabeth-warren-for-impugning-sessionss-character/|title=Republicans vote to rebuke Elizabeth Warren, saying she impugned Sessions's character|first1=Paul|last1=Kane|first2=Ed|last2=O'Keefe|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=February 8, 2017|access-date=February 8, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411152459/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/02/07/republicans-vote-to-rebuke-elizabeth-warren-for-impugning-sessionss-character/|archive-date=April 11, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/elizabeth-warren-sessions-silence-234779|title=Senate votes to shut up Elizabeth Warren|author=Seung Min Kim|newspaper=Politico|date=February 8, 2017|access-date=February 8, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170208165520/http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/elizabeth-warren-sessions-silence-234779|archive-date=February 8, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Portrayals in film ===
* [[Cicely Tyson]], in the 1978 television [[miniseries]] ''[[King (miniseries)|King]]''<ref>{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/27372/King-The-Martin-Luther-King-Story/cast|title=King |access-date=January 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131008051213/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/27372/King-The-Martin-Luther-King-Story/cast|archive-date=October 8, 2013 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fuller |first=Jennifer |date=2010 |title=Dangerous Fictions: Race, History, and "King" |journal=Cinema Journal |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=40–62 |doi=10.1353/cj.0.0192 |jstor=25619770 |issn=0009-7101|doi-access=free }}</ref>
*[[Angela Bassett]], in the 2013 television movie ''[[Betty and Coretta]]''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowry |first=Brian |date=January 30, 2013 |title=Review: 'Betty & Coretta' |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |url=https://variety.com/2013/tv/reviews/betty-coretta-1117949126/ |url-status=live |access-date=January 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304202459/http://variety.com/2013/tv/reviews/betty-coretta-1117949126/ |archive-date=March 4, 2014}}</ref>
*[[Carmen Ejogo]] played Coretta King in both the 2001 [[HBO]] film ''[[Boycott (2001 film)|Boycott]]''  and the 2014 film ''[[Selma (film)|Selma]]''.