First lady of civil rights left her own mark on the nation

Coretta Scott King devoted almost 38 years of her life to pursing her husband's legacy, but it is less than fair or accurate to define her as if she were little more than an extension of the martyred civil rights leader.
Mrs. King wore the title of first lady of the civil-rights movement. It was a natural enough title for the nation to bestow, perhaps in part because of the quiet dignity she portrayed in the face of great loss after her husband, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The Rev. Mr. King's death followed by less than five years the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The memory of Jacqueline Kennedy, a model of composure during that time of loss, was still relatively fresh. The strikingly similar behavior of Mrs. King linked the two first ladies in the national consciousness.
In the years that followed, Mrs. King, who died Tuesday at the age of 78, devoted herself to her family and to the memory of her husband, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who became the international face of the civil rights movement in the United States.
Shortly after her husband's death, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, in Atlanta, and used it to confront hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.
Looking ahead
But she did not allow her commitment to civil rights to be frozen in 1968. She spoke out on the changing issues of the day, especially those involving women, the economically disadvantaged and the elimination of AIDS.
Last March, she participated in the 40th anniversary of the voting-rights march in Selma, Ala., an event that inspired passage of the Voting Rights Act. But a stroke and heart attack last August left her partially paralyzed. Still, she was able to appear on stage with her children at an awards dinner in Atlanta last month marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Her husband held, as he told the world, a dream for this nation. It is a dream only partially realized. It is a dream to which Coretta Scott King devoted much of her life, and the intelligence and energy she brought to that effort made the dream every bit as much hers as his.
In Georgia, flags will fly at half-staff through the weekend, until after her funeral Tuesday. That is not only a gesture of respect, it is a demonstration of how far the nation has come toward that day when all men and women will be recognized not by the color of their skin, but by the quality of their character.