Coretta Scott King By: Ameen Mustafa

CHILDHOOD Coretta Scott King was born on April 27, 1927, in Marion, Alabama. She has an older sister named Edy and a younger brother named Obie. Coretta’s father worked very hard and bought a big home when she was 10 years old. She had to walk 6 miles to and from her school because the schools were segregated. Her mother was willing to drive 20 miles to a high school, just so that her children could get a good education.

EDUCATION & FAMILY Coretta did well in school and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she studied music. Coretta met Martin Luther King Jr. and got married in They had four children: Yoland, Dexter, Bernice, and Martin Luther King III.

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King together fought for civil rights. The buses let the black people ride in the back and the white people in the front. This was wrong. In 1955, they both joined in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. They made a change. In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional.

FINALLY On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Coretta Scott King realized that it is important to continue her husband’s work in civil rights. She founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for social change. In 1986, Congress approved to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a day of public service. Coretta Scott King died on January 30, 2006 in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King both made a difference in the world.