THE MOUNTAINTOP

An American author, activist, civil rights leader and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. King was an active advocate for Black American equality. A skilled singer, Coretta  often incorporated music into her civil rights work. She put on various "freedom concerts" during which she would use music and poetry to provide "an emotional connection to the messages of social, economic, and spiritual transformation." After her husband's death, Coretta Scott King broadened her scope to include both opposition to apartheid and advocacy for LGBT rights. She stated “I hope someday people will see Coretta. Often, I am made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner: the wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label.” She called for women to “unite and form a solid block of women power to fight the three great evils of racism, poverty and war.”