Friday would have been the 85th birthday of Coretta Scott King.
To keep her mother’s legacy strong -- and to honor her late aunt -- Bernice King has helped publish, “Desert Rose: The Life and Legacy of Coretta Scott King,” written by Coretta King’s only sister Edythe Scott Bagley, who died shortly after the book was completed.
For Bagley, the book had become a lifelong quest – to tell the story of her sister’s rise from rural Alabama to the heights of American history as the wife of civil rights legend, Martin Luther King Jr.
Bagley had been working on the book on and off for 45 years, but not until she got a boost from Bernice King did the book finally go to print. We sat down with Bernice King earlier this week as she prepared for the book’s official release to coincide with her mother’s birthday.
Q: Where did the idea of the book come from?
A: She started the book in 1966. My mother encouraged her to do the book with all of the dangers they faced, and my mom not knowing if she would live. Aunt Edythe mailed [the original manuscript] off on April 4 [in 1968]. Dad died that night.
Q: So when did she pick it up again?
A: In 2004, my mother encouraged her to finish the book. So she started back picking up bits and pieces. Then my mother passed (in January 2006) and then my sister (Yolanda, May 2007) passed, so that delayed it. But she let me know that she was working on a book and wanted to complete it, because there really needed to be something out there about my mother. She asked if I would mind helping her get a publisher. I said yes, and we added a best-selling writer (Joe Hilley) to the book. But Aunt Edythe had already completed a majority of the book. Trying to get a publisher was hard. Nothing worked. Finally, one day I was driving and the University of Alabama Press popped into my head. With a lot of the book taking place it Alabama, it made sense. We made a call to the editor and the rest is history.
Q: How important was this project for you personally?
A: Aunt Edythe passed in June 2011. I know that this was something she really wanted to get done and completed. She urged me to get it done. I was feeling pretty bad, because her health was declining.
Q: What did you learn about your mother from reading the book and what do you hope readers will get out of it?
A: I learned that my mother was once engaged. I thought my dad was the first. That was news to me. I didn’t know the extent of some of her freedom concerts, especially when it was getting pretty difficult to get donations. She used those concerts to elevate people and raise awareness. In the early 1970s when they were in the process of demolishing the Fox Theater, someone came to her office and wanted to get my mother’s support. She was focused on the building the King Center. But Aunt Edythe felt it was important to lend her name to the cause, even though my mother was preoccupied. And as a result, a lot of people became more interested in saving the Fox. For readers, I hope it revises the fact that she, more than anyone else, is responsible for the manner in which we remember the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. She was side-by-side with him in keeping the message of nonviolence alive in society. She made extraordinary sacrifices.
Q: The title of the book is very interesting. I have never heard your mother referred to as Desert Rose. Where did Mrs. Bagley get that title from?
A: She got the title from the fact that the culture and the region they grew up in was so harsh, with the restrictions of the Jim Crow south. My mother was determined to create a better life. She was like this rose pushing up from a parched dry land.
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