Brenda: Of all the people still with us, the one who inspires me the most is the one I want to highlight for Black History Month. Coretta Scott King has been a continued inspiration to me.
When I first learned of her, I was ten years old and the year was 1985. We were studying MLK and we were told about his wife Coretta Scott King. She was married to him and handled the loss with grace. And then we moved on to another person.
In the years since, I've learned more of Coretta Scott King and actually got to meet her once. Grace may seem like a minor thing to credit someone with and certainly Mrs. King has remained active but meeting her what stood out was her grace. There was a warmth and peace around her and she seemed to glow.
That probably has to do with the strength she gets from her family but it also has to do with the fact that she's continued to fight for human equality and this has been her legacy, to build on all that her late husband fought for.
She has continued the fight for economic justice and she has enlarged the scope of many people with her advocacy for the homeless, for women, for gays and lesbians and for children.
Coretta Scott King participated in the civil rights movement of the sixties and for that alone she deserves to be noted. But more importantly, she has continued to carry the goals of peace, equality and fairness with her every step of the way.
Dr. King was taken from a world that needed him much too soon. We've been very lucky to have Coretta Scott King carrying on his work, always with compassion, always with kindness and hope, and always with grace.
When I was ten years old, I thought grace was just an adjective. Coretta Scott King has demonstrated that grace is very much an aspect of activism and a needed component in our lives.
The King Center is a valuable resource I hope people will visit.
