Coretta Scott King

===Kennedy presidency===
Mr. and Mrs. King had come to respect President Kennedy and understood his reluctance at times to get involved openly with civil rights.<ref>Bagley, p. 192.</ref> In April 1962, Coretta served as a delegate for the [[Women Strike for Peace|Women Strike for Peace Conference]] in Geneva, Switzerland.<ref>McCarty, p. xiii.</ref> Martin drove her to the hospital on March 28, 1963, where King gave birth to their fourth child [[Bernice King|Bernice.]] After King and her daughter were due to come home, Martin rushed back to drive them himself.<ref>McPherson, p. 56.</ref>
After Martin Luther King's arrest on April 12, 1963, King tried to make direct contact with President Kennedy at the advisement of [[Wyatt Tee Walker]] and succeeded in speaking with Robert F. Kennedy. President Kennedy was with his father [[Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr]], who was not feeling well.<ref>Mahoney, p. 247</ref> In what has been noted as making Kennedy seem less sympathetic towards the Kings, the president redirected Mrs. King's call to the White House switchboard.<ref name=Branch736>Branch, p. 736.</ref>

The next day, President Kennedy reported to King that the FBI had been sent into Birmingham the previous night and confirmed that her husband was fine. He was allowed to speak with her on the phone and told her to inform Walker of Kennedy's involvement.<ref>Fairclough, p. 77.</ref> She told her husband of her assistance from the Kennedys, which her husband took as the reason "why everybody is suddenly being so polite."<ref>Schlesinger, p. 328.</ref> Regarding the [[March on Washington]], Coretta said, "It was as though heaven had come down."<ref>Willis, p. 166.</ref> Coretta had been home all day with their children, since the birth of their daughter Bernice had not allowed her to attend Easter Sunday church services.<ref>McPherson, p. 57.</ref> Since Mrs. King had issued her own statement regarding the aid of the president instead of doing as her husband had told her and report to [[Wyatt Walker]], this according to author [[Taylor Branch]], made her portrayed by reports as "an anxious new mother who may have confused her White House fantasies with reality."<ref name=Branch736 />

Coretta went to a Women Strike for Peace rally in New York, in the early days of November 1963. After speaking at the meeting held in the National Baptist Church, King joined the march from [[Central Park]] to the [[United Nations Headquarters]]. The march was timed to celebrate the group's second anniversary and celebrated the successful completion of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Coretta and Martin learned of [[John F. Kennedy assassination|John F. Kennedy's assassination]] when reports initially indicated he had only been seriously wounded. Coretta joined her husband upstairs and watched [[Walter Cronkite]] announce the president's death. King sat with her visibly shaken husband following the confirmation.<ref>Bagley, p. 181.</ref>