Coretta Scott King has died. AP reports, “Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband’s assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young said Tuesday morning. She was 78.”
That’s a pretty good summary of her legacy. She was a revered figure–as Juan Williams put it on NPR, the “queen” of the civil rights movement–solely for the fact that she was Dr. King’s widow. She has spent the last several decades doggedly fighting against any attempt to portray King as anything but a Christ-like figure and has succeeded in elevating him to iconic status beyond his actual role in gaining equality for black Americans.
