Coretta Scott King Quotes
110 Coretta Scott King Quotes
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[Martin Luther King Jr] He piercingly revealed the cause of our national discord, placing it squarely on the ingrained white racism of American society. He made discrimination and poverty the central focus of his attacks. A year later, spending nearly a million dollars with a huge staff, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was to come to the same essential conclusions.
Coretta Scott King
Martin Luther King Jr, stresses the common cause of all the disinherited, white and black, laying the basis for the contemporary struggles now unfolding around economic issues. He spoke out sharply for all the poor in all their hues, for he knew if color made them different, misery and oppression made them the same.
Coretta Scott King
[Martin Luther King Jr] It is our common tragedy that we have lost his prophetic voice but it would compound the tragedy if the lessons he did articulate are now ignored.
Coretta Scott King
The solutions he [Dr Martin Luther King Jr] offered can still save our society from self-destruction. I hope that it will be seen as a testament, and that the grief that followed his death will be transmuted to a universal determination to realize the economic and social justice for which he so willingly gave his life.
Coretta Scott King
As a young mother some years ago, I welcomed every opportunity to teach my children as best I could about the wonder of human diversity, and it was gratifying to witness the expansion of their awareness of the contributions of all races, religions, and nations to the progress of humanity.
Coretta Scott King
[My first daughter] Yolanda relished these insights with particular fervor and became increasingly devoted to using the arts and media to bring people together and to educate young people in particular about the empowering values of nonviolence and the benefits of greater intercultural understanding, goodwill, and cooperation.
Coretta Scott King
Stories and poems illuminate the lives of struggling to make meaningful connections by reaching out with courage and love across the chasms of race, religion, culture, boundaries, and other man-made barriers.
Coretta Scott King
[On stories] Together they offer hope that there is an undercurrent of common consciousness that unites all of humanity in some mysterious and transcendent way, and every effort to promote greater sisterhood and brotherhood, no matter how small or large the scale may be…
Coretta Scott King
Learn the empowering lessons of unconditional love, hope and healing… and know that you too have a vital contribution to make to the creation of the Beloved Community.
Coretta Scott King
A remarkable woman, born to the human rights struggle that challenged and changed our country. Eleanor Holmes Norton has always been enmeshed in America’s contradictions. She was born a black child in the nation’s capital when it was a segregated Southern bastion. She grew up in the city that symbolized freedom and democracy, when our government denied its citizens self-government at home and representation in the Congress. And she became a young woman when we all lived in a man’s world.
Coretta Scott King
Eleanor [Holmes Norton] has challenged every barrier designed to contain her and others like her. The capitol and the rest of the country are no longer segregated by law, because her generation of activists – adults and students – would no longer have it.
Coretta Scott King
The man’s world is opening to women because Eleanor [Holmes Norton] and her generation of feminists insisted. The District of Columbia has a home-rule government, and the woman the city has chosen to bring complete self-government and the full congressional voting representation is Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s native daughter.
Coretta Scott King
Eleanor [Holmes Norton] was one of the generation of students who went South, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and his philosophy of direct action and nonviolent resistance. I met Eleanor when she was a young woman, and learned that she had gone to Antioch College, where both my sister and I had attended.
Coretta Scott King
For us both [Coretta and Eleanor Holmes Norton], our non conformist college suited our mutual understanding that there was work to be done in a world that needed changing.
Coretta Scott King
Racial justice has been Eleanor’s anchor, but she has used her experience as a black woman in America to set sail to many other shores of injustice as well. As Eleanor says, and as Martin Luther King Jr believed, ‘Human rights is all or nothing.’
Coretta Scott King
[On Martin Luther King Jr] He was a man who had hoped to be an inspiring preacher in a quiet, small community. Instead, by the time of his death he had led tens of millions of people into shattering the system of Southern segregation, splintering it beyond any possibility of restoration. He had fashioned a mass black electorate which eliminated overt racism from political campaigns and accumulated political power for blacks beyond any they had ever possessed in their history in the United States. Above all, with these and other accomplishments, he brought a new and higher demonstration of human dignity to the black experience.
Coretta Scott King
At the time of his death some voices were rising against him. These relatively few but raucous critics (most of whom, ironically, were indebted to him for their freedom to speak out to condemn him) challenged non violent social change, interracial coalitions. They called instead for violence and a negatively oriented nationalism which emphasized hate, not pride and eventuated in a disguised black racism. It is fair to say that in the eight years which have passed since my husband’s death, confusion and discord have replaced the clear goals and unity he advocated.
Coretta Scott King
What is immediately apparent is that black nationalism and the experimentation with violence have ended in a disastrous disorganization and retrogression for the movement. Through economic changes caused by recession are primarily responsible for setbacks, the battering experienced by black communities has been made worse by inflating boasts about violence. That violence unleashed a vastly superior force which seized the opportunity to intimidate or destroy organizations and individuals,. The tragic sacrifice of misguided lives was bad enough in itself, but far worse was the effect the experience had on all blacks.
Coretta Scott King
Rather than inspiring confidence, instilling dignity and courage as had the earlier Movement, the threats of black violence culminated in crushing defeats followed inevitably by despondency, apathy and discouragement with all forms of social action. My husband had foreseen this and warned there was no greater folly than for a minority ill-prepared for warfare to seek it out against an adversity greater in number and vastly larger in fire power.
Coretta Scott King
Martin Luther King [Jr] argued insistently that a minority should use moral force not only because it is right in itself but because with the minority becomes superior to the majority. This was proved many times in the decade of 1955-1965. Many in recent years have forgotten this lesson and the lives of individuals and organizations were snuffed out in tragically wrong circumstances.
Coretta Scott King
In these past eight years since my husband’s death not everything was negative. The roots of nonviolent protest had penetrated deeply. When the days of marching, sitting-in, and boycotting had passed, a decisive section of the Movement transformed itself. A new emphasis was given to electoral politics and coalition. Blacks moved into elective posts as mayors of major cities, as state and national legislators and as city councilmen. In May of 1975 there were 3,503 blacks holding elective office. In 1955 there were less than 100. More striking the black electorate became a force so that black concerns were felt in every discussion of legislation.
Coretta Scott King
New economic opportunities opened, especially in more prosperous periods. Blacks, who only yesterday were predominantly workers of the soil, laborers or house workers are now found in almost every field of gainful employment. In some areas some jobs are tokens, but in the past even tokens were denied. The years of struggle have yielded visible progress in the past eight years, and the martyrdom of Martin Luther King Jr has inspired steps toward a richer life for blacks.
Coretta Scott King
The experience positive in some many respects, is nevertheless partial and tentative, illustrating once more that the road to freedom is long and winding. An economic recession or depression wipes out far more black than white gains. The economic reserves of a black family or community are far less and the suffering is consequently more intense for blacks. However, even with the fulfilled promise, blacks have achieved a victory of the spirit that had for long eluded them. With the emergence of Martin Luther King [Jr] and the mass movement he inspired they learned that they could attain unity and hold it until they had won a victory. Beyond this they learned that even after mistakes, lost ground can be recaptured. These are lessons which suggest the future will have fewer defeats and more successes.
Coretta Scott King
If Martin Luther King [Jr] had lived on the, the fight ahead would be easier, but because he did live the fight will take place informed by experience. Ultimately, nonviolence equality, and justice must prevail in a land whose own fight for independence was guided by these principles.
Coretta Scott King
Martin seemed to have the need to get on with his destiny.
Coretta Scott King
To do something for humanity.
Coretta Scott King
[On building the multi-million dollar Martin Luther King Jr Center in 1980] What I want people to feel when they come here is a presence. I want them to feel that the closest thing to Martin [Luther King Jr] is his presence in this center. Actually, Martin [Luther King Jr] doesn’t need this, but the nation does.
Coretta Scott King
[On the Martin Luther King Jr Center not being a mere brick and mortar memorial to the curious tourist.] Our center is about dealing with meeting people’s basic human needs. We want to deal with the totality of the human condition, to transform the individual while we transform the system.
Coretta Scott King
This center [Martin Luther King Jr Center or The King Center] is designed to last 100, 200, maybe 300 years. It’s a monument to truth, justice and peace.
Coretta Scott King
There was never a question in our minds that we were not doing the most important thing we could be doing for ourselves and for a better society for our children, all children, to grow up in…
Coretta Scott King
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