On what would have been her 96th birthday, a new memorial honoring the civil rights legacy of Coretta Scott King was placed on the grounds of the King Center on Thursday.
In the days following the 1968 assassination of her husband, Coretta Scott King started making plans to build The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change.
But in many ways, “The King Center,” as it is colloquially called, is just as much hers as it is Martin Luther King Jr.’s.
Speaking at the dedication of the Coretta Scott King Peace and Meditation Garden, Bernice King, chief executive of the Atlanta-based center, said the magnitude of her mother’s “contributions to humanity are yet to be known.”
“Today’s dedication of this monument is but a beginning,” King said. “There’s much more to come, and when her legacy is fully revealed, we will know that because of her, because of Mom, because of Coretta Scott King, the dream lives and the legacy continues.”
Credit: AP photo
Credit: AP photo
Credit: The National Portrait Gallery
Credit: The National Portrait Gallery
Not quite a statue, the monument is a covered pavilion consisting of a laser-cut, painted steel canopy that overlays a circular mosaic floor made of multi-colored, polished concrete tiles.
Funded by Hulu, the King memorial is part of the streaming service’s three-project “Made by Her: Monuments” series, which it says is helping to bridge the gender gap in public art.
In addition to Coretta Scott King, monuments are being planned to honor conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida and former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in California.
Brooklyn-based artist Saya Woolfalk was commissioned to do all three monuments.
Credit: Hulu
Credit: Hulu
“I think of my art as science-fiction based, but engaging with history and possible futures,” Woolfalk said. “So when I was invited to do this piece, the romance of thinking through fiction, and what we want for the future and present, become real. The stakes of this project are to make sure the omissions of women are corrected.”
The project was initially slated to sit on property owned by the city of Atlanta, but when Bernice King saw the renderings, she insisted that it become part of the King Center’s growing memorial to her parents.
The crypts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are both on the grounds of the King Center, as is a recently installed eternal flame.
The new memorial is next to the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” World Peace Rose Garden.
Woolfalk worked with Bernice King and Atlanta historian Karcheik Sims-Alvarado on the conception of the work, much of which was inspired by Coretta Scott King’s love of gardening and roses.
Martin Luther King Jr. often gave his wife roses before his trips. In 2013, a moderately-fragranced clustered hybrid bloom with a creamy white center and coral-orange dipped edges was christened the Coretta Scott King Rose.
Woolfalk designed the dome-shaped canopy and the floor of the pavilion with rose patterns.
The words “empathy, change, freedom, justice, peace, compassion, liberty, rights, truth” and “community” encircle the exterior of the dome.
Credit: Hulu
Credit: Hulu
A quotation from Coretta Scott King can be seen from within the dome: “Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”
A lectern in the center of the structure shows how she was often depicted in the press, speaking from behind a podium. A portrait of her is etched in glass on the podium, which is covered with several microphones, one of which will be live.
“This monument is the beginning of the unveiling of Coretta Scott King,” Bernice King said. “In this day and age, we know that women are emerging to be very significant in terms of recognized leadership. It is not that women have not been leading, we have not been recognized.”
At the end of the program, Woolfalk joined Bernice King and Yolanda Renee King to cut the ribbon, officially opening the monument.
Yolanda Renee King, the 14-year-old daughter of Martin Luther King III, and Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr.’s only grandchild, smiled brightly.
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