Coretta Scott King Spotlight & Martin Luther King, Jr Contest

This is one of my favorite pictures of Coretta Scott King & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She wasn’t a woman afraid to show emotions and he looks like he’s enjoying it.

What’s that old saying, “Behind every good man there’s a good woman” or something like that Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) was married to civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She’s also known as the First Lady of Civil Rights.

Coretta Scott was born in Heiberger, Alabama and raised on the farm of her parents Bernice McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott, in Perry County, Alabama. She was exposed at an early age to the injustices of life in a segregated society. She walked five miles a day to attend the one-room Crossroad School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses to an all-white school closer by. Young Coretta excelled at her studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her graduating class at Lincoln High School. She graduated in 1945 and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

As an undergraduate, she took an active interest in the nascent civil rights movement; she joined the Antioch chapter of the NAACP, and the college’s Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees. She graduated from Antioch with a B.A. in music and education and won a scholarship to study concert singing at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

In Boston she met a young theology student, Martin Luther King, Jr., and her life was changed forever. They were married on June 18, 1953, in a ceremony conducted by the groom’s father, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta Scott King completed her degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory and the young couple moved in September 1954 to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. had accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist.

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Win a copy of Martin Luther King: The Essential Box Set: The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr.  By Clayborne Carson, Kris Shepard, Peter Holloran

What do you have to do to enter? Leave a comment on this blog post and there will be several other opportunities this month to enter but you have to check the bottom of random blog posts.  (Sign up to mailing list so you’ll be alerted of new posts).  The more you comment, the more chances you have to win. Contest ends on February 28, 2010. U.S. & Canada residents only. Avoid where prohibited by law.

Related posts:

1. I Too Have a Dream – A Tribute to Dr. King
2. A Piece of History – Another Dr. King Tribute
3. Electa Rome Parks spotlight
4. Marc Lacy – The Lyrical King
5. Updated – Duane Martin & Tisha Campbell Split