KING, CORETTA SCOTT

born April 27, 1927, Marion, Ala., U.S. Coretta Scott King, 1968. ne Coretta Scott American civil rights activist who was the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. Coretta Scott graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and in 1951 enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. While working toward a degree in voice, she met Martin Luther King, Jr., then a graduate theology student at Boston University. They were married in 1953 and had four children. After both had completed their studies, the Kings moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King had accepted a position as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Coretta Scott King joined her husband in civil rights activism through the 1950s and '60s, taking part in the Montgomery bus boycott (1955) and efforts to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Following the assassination of her husband in 1968, she continued to be active in the Civil Rights Movement and founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia. She served as the centre's president and chief executive officer until leadership was transferred to her son Dexter in 1995. Her memoir, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., appeared in 1969; that year she also established the annual Coretta Scott King Award to honour an African American author of an outstanding text for children. In 1979 a similar award was established for outstanding African American illustrator.