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Pelosi: ‘Coretta Scott King Was Not Only the Keeper of the Flame; She Was One of Our Greatest Civil Rights Leaders’

January 31, 2006

Pelosi: ‘Coretta Scott King Was Not Only the Keeper of the Flame; She Was One of Our Greatest Civil Rights Leaders’

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" Leader Pelosi and Speaker Hastert introduced a bipartisan Coretta Scott King Resolution this afternoon to honor the life of the late civil rights leader. Below are Leader Pelosi’s remarks:

â€Å"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I thank the distinguished gentleman and civil rights leader, Mr. Conyers for yielding. I wish to associate myself with the eloquent remarks of the Speaker of the House, Mr. Hastert, in praise of the life and leadership of Coretta Scott King.

â€Å"I’m proud to rise here today to join the Speaker in honoring Coretta Scott King. She was not only the keeper of the flame; she was one of our nation’s greatest civil rights leaders in her own right.

â€Å"For all of her life, Coretta Scott King was her own woman. She grew up in rural and segregated Alabama, in the hard-working and ambitious Scott family. She followed her sister, who was the first African American ever to attend Antioch College in Ohio. Afterward, Coretta moved to Boston to pursue a music career. It was there that she met a young preacher through a friend.

â€Å"We all know who that young preacher was to become. But what we do not know is who he might have been without Coretta by his side. The wise man that he was, Martin Luther King was not just looking for a wife, but a partner, and he was taken with her immediately. It took Coretta a little longer - six months of deliberations before she accepted his marriage proposal. To the shock of Dr. King’s father, but probably to no surprise to anyone who knew her, she asked that phrase ‘obey thy husband’ be removed from their marriage vows.

â€Å"Of their work together, Dr. King would later say, ‘I wish I could say…that I led her down this path. But I must say we went down together, because she was as actively involved and concerned when we met as she is now.’

â€Å"A year after they were married, Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King had to decide where to move after Dr. King completed his studies in Boston â€" whether to stay in the North, or move back to the South. The year was 1954 â€" and the South was deeply divided by the issue of race.

â€Å"The newlywed couple had both grown up in the segregated South. They knew the racial injustice that permeated the area â€" the indignities of sitting in the back of the bus and drinking from separate water fountains.

â€Å"Yet they chose to return to the heart of what they wanted to change â€" and they accepted the pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama â€" going straight to the heart of what was wrong, with the aim to make it right.

â€Å"In the years that followed, Coretta Scott King marched alongside her husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for that very cause. They marched together in Selma, to demand voting rights for African Americans, and aren’t we all proud to call John Lewis our colleague, who was on that that historic march so long ago. They marched together in Washington to demand a federal law to protect the civil rights of all Americans. And they marched together in Memphis, the day before Dr. King was killed, for the sanitation workers facing entrenched discrimination.

â€Å"But in the immediate days after this tragedy, Coretta Scott King kept marching, carrying the aspirations of the civil rights movement with her. She led the Poor People’s March to Washington â€" that was the first time I saw her. She marched in South Africa, standing against apartheid. For the nearly 40 years of her life that came after Dr. King’s death, she marched for civil rights everywhere, and to root out injustice anywhere it existed.

â€Å"Because of her singularity of purpose and sheer tenacity, Coretta Scott King often triumphed. The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and the Martin Luther King holiday both stand today as testament to her vision, determination, her efforts, and her leadership.

â€Å"But her work is not yet completed. On the day of her death, and on the eve of Black History Month, we must recommit to finishing her work.

â€Å"It is with great sadness and respect that I extend deepest condolences to Mrs. King’s four children: Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice, her family, and to the multitudes of her friends and supporters around the world. I hope it is a comfort to them that the entire nation mourns their loss and are praying for them at this sad time.”