January 31, 2006: CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON ON THE PASSING OF CORETTA SCOTT KING
February 6, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2006
STATEMENT OF CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON ON THE PASSING OF CORETTA SCOTT KING
Washington, DC, —“With Coretta Scott King today passes the only civil rights leader besides King himself who is irreplaceable. She did not simply inherit his legacy, as widows do and as civil rights leaders did. She was King’s full partner in the movement as much as in marriage. When we lost King, she did what partners do. Coretta carried forward the authentic essence of their life’s work for nonviolence and universal human rights. She worked so ceaselessly and magnificently for the great causes they had both embraced that she succeeded in creating her own way and carving her own unique and matchless role. Coretta King is due the justice of being remembered for her own extraordinary work.“The loss to our country and to human rights in the world is profound, but for me this is a deeply personal loss. Coretta and I were friends – from our times laughing and talking on the phone and when we were together, especially in her super active days in the 70s and 80s, to our last talk, as we waited for several hours in the room beneath the Lincoln Memorial to unveil the engraved stone here that marks the place where King gave the 1963 March on Washington speech. That friendship is captured best in a picture hanging in my office, dated by my full grown afro, of an apparently deep conversation between Coretta and me. I will miss the great movement woman and torch bearer of the King legacy. Most of all, though, I will miss those talks with Coretta.