Coretta Scott King

== Assassination of her husband ==
[[File:Coretta Scott King by Moneta Sleet.jpg|thumb|King comforting daughter Bernice at her husband's funeral, in a [[1969 Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer Prize-winning]] photo by [[Moneta Sleet Jr.]]]]
{{Main|Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.}}
Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. She learned of the shooting after being called by [[Jesse Jackson]] when she returned from shopping with her eldest child Yolanda.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rickford|first=Russell J.|author-link=Russell J. Rickford|title=Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X|year=2003|publisher=Sourcebooks|location=Naperville, Illinois|isbn=1-4022-0171-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/bettyshabazzrema00rick/page/349 349]|url=https://archive.org/details/bettyshabazzrema00rick/page/349|access-date=July 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802155216/https://archive.org/details/bettyshabazzrema00rick/page/349|archive-date=August 2, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> King had difficulty settling her children with the news that their father was deceased. She received a large number of telegrams, including one from [[Lee Harvey Oswald]]'s mother, which she regarded as the one that touched her the most.<ref>Clarke, p. 124.</ref>{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

In an effort to prepare her daughter Bernice, then only five years old, for the funeral, she tried to explain to her that the next time she saw her father he would be in a casket and would not be speaking.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/us/bernice-king-profile/| title=Moving out of the dreamer's shadow: A King daughter's long journey| date=August 25, 2013| first=John| last=Blake| work=CNN| access-date=November 30, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203054202/http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/us/bernice-king-profile/| archive-date=December 3, 2013| url-status=live}}</ref> When asked by her son Dexter when his father would return, King lied and told him that his father had only been badly hurt. Senator Robert F. Kennedy ordered three more telephones to be installed in the King residence for King and her family to be able to answer the flood of calls they received and offered a plane to transport her to Memphis.<ref name=Gelfand7/> Coretta spoke to Kennedy the day after the assassination and asked if he could persuade [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|Jacqueline Kennedy]] to attend her husband's funeral with him.<ref>Heymann, p. 149.</ref>

Robert F. Kennedy promised her that he would help "any way" he could. King was told to not go ahead and agree to Kennedy's offer by Southern Christian Leadership Conference members, who told her about his presidential ambitions. She ignored the warnings and went along with his request.<ref>Schlesinger, p. 876.</ref> On April 5, 1968, King arrived in Memphis to retrieve her husband's body and decided that the casket should be kept open during the funeral with the hope that her children would realize upon seeing his body that he would not be coming home.<ref name=Gelfand7>Gelfand, p. 7.</ref> King called photographer Bob Fitch and asked for documentation to be done, having known him for years.<ref>Burns, p. 75.</ref> On April 7, 1968, former Vice President [[Richard Nixon]] visited King and recalled his first meeting with her husband in 1955. Nixon also went to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral on April 9, 1968, but did not walk in the procession. Nixon believed participating in the procession would be "grandstanding".<ref>Black, p. 523.</ref>

On April 8, 1968, King and her children headed a march with sanitation workers that her husband had planned to carry out before his death. After the marchers reached the staging area at the Civic Center Plaza in front of Memphis City Hall, onlookers proceeded to take pictures of King and her children but stopped when she addressed everyone at a microphone. She said that despite the Martin Luther King Jr. being away from his children at times, "his children knew that Daddy loved them, and the time that he spent with them was well spent."<ref>Burns, pp. 119–120.</ref> Prior to Martin's funeral, Jacqueline Kennedy met with her. The two spent five minutes together and despite the short visit, Coretta called it comforting. King's parents arrived from Alabama.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19680418&id=DdJNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7408,5180714|title=Coretta King Expected to Take Active Role in Crusade|date=April 18, 1968|work=[[The Free Lance–Star]]|first=Jules|last=Loh|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043605/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19680418&id=DdJNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WYoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7408,5180714|archive-date=October 19, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Robert and [[Ethel Kennedy]] came, the latter being embraced by King.<ref>Oppenheimer, p. 417.</ref> King and her sister-in-law [[Christine King Farris]] tried to prepare the children for seeing Martin's body.<ref>Burns, p. 129.</ref> With the end of the funeral service, King led her children and mourners in a march from the church to [[Morehouse College]], her late husband's alma mater.<ref>Gelfand, p. 12.</ref>

=== Early widowhood ===
Two days after her husband's death, King spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church and made her first statement on his views since he had died. She said her husband told their children, "If a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live." She brought up his ideals and the fact that he may be dead, but concluded that "his spirit will never die."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VTgDAAAAMBAJ&q=coretta&pg=PA30|title=Widow Hopes For Fulfillment of King's Dream|date=April 18, 1968|work=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]] |access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043605/https://books.google.com/books?id=VTgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30&dq=martin+luther+king+jet&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FDjTUqWYCsXuoASayoKQBQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=coretta&f=false|archive-date=October 19, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Not very long after the assassination, Coretta took his place at a peace rally in [[New York City]]. Using notes he had written before his death, King constructed her own speech.<ref>Gelfand, p. 13.</ref> Coretta approached the African-American entertainer and activist [[Josephine Baker]] to take her husband's place in the Civil Rights Movement. Baker declined after thinking it over, stating that her twelve adopted children (known as the "rainbow tribe") were "too young to lose their mother".<ref>Josephine Baker and Joe Bouillon, ''Josephine''. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.</ref>

Coretta Scott King eventually broadened her focus to include [[women's rights]], [[LGBT social movements|LGBT rights]], economic issues, world peace, and various other causes. As early as December 1968, she called for women to "unite and form a solid block of women power to fight the three great evils of [[racism]], [[poverty]] and [[war]]", during a Solidarity Day speech.<ref name="NAPF">{{cite web|last=Pappas |first=Heather |title=Coretta Scott King |publisher=Nuclear Age Peace Foundation |url=http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/youth-outreach/peace-heroes/king-coretta.htm |access-date=September 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012021241/http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/youth-outreach/peace-heroes/king-coretta.htm |archive-date=October 12, 2007 }}</ref> On April 27, 1968, King spoke at an anti-war demonstration in Central Park in place of her husband. King made it clear that there was no reason "why a nation as rich as ours should be blighted by poverty, disease, and illiteracy."<ref>Crosby, p. 402.</ref> King used notes taken from her husband's pockets upon his death, which included the "Ten Commandments on [[Vietnam war|Vietnam]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://womennewsnetwork.net/2014/01/20/when-widowhood-speaks-for-black-civil-rights/|title=When widowhood speaks to black civil rights: Coretta Scott King|date=January 20, 2014|publisher=Women News Network |access-date=January 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125172233/http://womennewsnetwork.net/2014/01/20/when-widowhood-speaks-for-black-civil-rights/|archive-date=January 25, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> On June 5, 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot after winning the California primary for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. After he died the following day, Ethel Kennedy, who King had spoken to with her husband only two months earlier, was widowed. King flew to Los Angeles to comfort Ethel over Bobby's death.<ref>Oppenheimer, p. 458.</ref> On June 8, 1968, while King was attending the late senator's funeral, the Justice Department made the announcement of [[James Earl Ray]]'s arrest.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19680609&id=v6VPAAAAIBAJ&pg=4087,1516395|title=Accused Slayer of Dr. Martin Luther King Arrested|date=June 9, 1968|work=[[Star–Banner]]|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043605/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19680609&id=v6VPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rQUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4087,1516395|archive-date=October 19, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Not long after this, the King household was visited by [[Mike Wallace]], who wanted to visit her and the rest of her family and see how they were faring that coming Christmas. She introduced her family to Wallace and also expressed her belief that there would not be another Martin Luther King Jr. because he comes around "once in a century" or "maybe once in a thousand years". She furthered that she believed her children needed her more than ever and that there was hope for redemption in her husband's death.<ref name="60Minutes">{{cite web |title=Coretta Scott King |work=CBS News |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm4mnvhtg9s |access-date=October 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303113037/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm4mnvhtg9s |archive-date=March 3, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> In January 1969, King and Bernita Bennette left for a trip to India. Before arriving in the country, the two stopped in [[Verona, Italy]] and King was awarded the Universal Love Award. King became the first non-Italian to receive the award. King traveled to London with her sister, sister-in-law, Bernita and several others to preach at St. Paul's Cathedral. Before, no woman had ever delivered a sermon at a regularly appointed service in the cathedral.<ref>Bagley, p. 256.</ref>

As a leader of the movement, King founded the [[King Center for Nonviolent Social Change]] in Atlanta. She served as the center's [[president (corporate title)|president]] and [[chief executive officer|CEO]] from its inception until she passed the reins of leadership to son Dexter Scott King. Removing herself from leadership, allowed her to focus on writing, public speaking and spend time with her parents.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RT0DAAAAMBAJ&q=dexter+king+jet&pg=PA5|title=Dexter King Will Succeed Mom Coretta Scott King as Chairman/CEO MLK Center|date=November 7, 1994|work=Jet |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019043605/https://books.google.com/books?id=RT0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=dexter+king+jet&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YAi9Us7gJNProAT7soCgCg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=dexter%20king%20jet&f=false|archive-date=October 19, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

She published her memoirs, ''My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.'', in 1969. President [[Richard Nixon]] was advised against visiting her on the first anniversary of his death since it would "outrage" many people.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3798624.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610220351/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3798624.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 10, 2014|date=December 2, 1986|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|title=Nixon papers reveal Elvis's rip of Beatles}}</ref> On October 15, 1969, King was the lead speaker at the [[Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam]] demonstration in Washington D.C., where she led a crowd down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White Past bearing candles and at a subsequent speech she denounced the war in Vietnam.<ref>Karnow p.599.</ref>

Coretta Scott King was also under surveillance by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] from 1968 until 1972. Her husband's activities had been monitored during his lifetime. Documents obtained by a [[Houston]], [[Texas]] television station show that the FBI worried that Coretta Scott King would "tie the [[Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam movement]] to the civil rights movement."<ref name="LATimesep">{{cite news |title=FBI spied on Coretta Scott King, files show |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=August 31, 2007 |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-king31aug31,1,1018428.story?ctrack=1&cset=true |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130127144127/http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-king31aug31,1,1018428.story?ctrack=1&cset=true |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 27, 2013 |access-date=September 11, 2007}}</ref> The FBI studied her memoir and concluded that her "selfless, magnanimous, decorous attitude is belied by&nbsp;... [her] actual shrewd, calculating, businesslike activities."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjoDAAAAMBAJ&q=j+edgar+hoover+coretta+scott+king&pg=PA12|title=FBI Files Reveal Government Spied on Coretta Scott King|date=September 24, 2007|work=Jet |access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106124358/https://books.google.com/books?id=zjoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12&dq=j+edgar+hoover+coretta+scott+king&hl=en&sa=X&ei=D4rQUqTSB9fboASV2ID4Dg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=j%20edgar%20hoover%20coretta%20scott%20king&f=false|archive-date=January 6, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> A spokesman for the King family said that they were aware of the surveillance, but had not realized how extensive it was.