Coretta Scott King: A journey uniquely her own

Published Feb. 8, 2006

She grew up picking cotton on a white man’s farm and ended up honored by four presidents of the United States, all standing behind her coffin, power paying tribute.

The changes in Coretta Scott King’s life tracked the changes in America because she was so integral to making them happen. Her journey was the country’s journey, just as her journey was uniquely her own.

Her funeral Tuesday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church included three planeloads of senators and representatives, joining 10,000 in the sanctuary and millions who watched the ceremony on live television.

“Who could have brought this crowd together except Coretta?” chuckled the Rev. Joseph Lowery.

A theme of strength ran through the eulogies, as it had run through her life. She was “born of flesh, but destined to become iron,” in poet Maya Angelou’s words.

“My wife,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote years ago, “was always stronger than I was.”

But as former President Bill Clinton pointed out, she was more than an icon. “I don’t want us to forget that there’s a woman in there, a real woman who loved and breathed and got angry and got hurt.”

If Tuesday was a day for reflection, it was also a day for rallying, for looking forward as well as back. “We owe something so that this gathering is not just another footnote on the pages of history,” Angelou said. “I want to see a better world. I want to see kindness and justice.”