Friday's Labor Folklore

Coretta Scott King "Music was the first love of my life."

Coretta Scott was born on April 27, 1927 in Marion, Alabama in her parents home. Delia Scott - her great-grandmother and a former slave - presided as midwife. At age 10 she began working for a white farmer, hoeing and then picking cotton. Coretta grew up in the Mt. Tabor A.M.E. Zion Church in Marion. She learned to love and appreciate music at an early age. Her mother - Bernice McMurry Scott, a church deaconess and stewardess - was pianist for the choir where Coretta often sang solos. At age 15 Coretta became director of the youth choir.

Coretta Scott King Memorial Located at the entrance to Mt. Tabor AME Church in Marion, Alabama. At the base of the statue is the inscription "First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement."  Photo: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Coretta graduated valedictorian from Lincoln High School in 1945. She played trumpet and piano, sang in the chorus and participated in school musicals. "In high school," Coretta said, "I had a teacher who influenced me greatly, Miss Olive J. Williams, and she was versatile in music, and I wanted to be like her. She exposed me to the world of classical music. She exposed me also to the great composers of the world, as well as Black performers, which I didn't know about at the time -- Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Roland Hayes and Dorothy Maynor and others." She won a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where she joined her sister - Edythe - the first African American to attend Antioch. She became politically active, joining the Antioch chapter of the NAACP and the college's Race Relations & Civil Liberties Committee. She first majored in Early Childhood Education but changed her plans after she performed at an NAACP event with Paul Robeson. "He encouraged her to study voice full-time and she dreamed of having a career like his that combined music performance with social activism." (Official Memorial Program of Coretta Scott King, Feb. 4, 2006.) In 1951, prior to competing her studies at Antioch, Coretta was advised by the head of the music department to apply for admission to the New England Conservatory of Music and to the Smith Noyes Foundation for a fellowship. Coretta was accepted and she moved to Boston. There she met Martin Luther King who was pursuing his Ph.D. at Boston University in systemic theology with a special interest in philosophy and ethics. She and Martin were married in June 1953. After completing her degree in music education - major in voice, minor in violin - Coretta and Martin moved to Montgomery, Alabama. Martin became pastor of the Dexter Ave. Baptist Church, a position he held from 1954 to 1960. Coretta gave concerts and continued, in her own words, "to perform between babies." She gave birth to four children -- Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice -- all who followed their parents' footsteps as civil rights activists.

Photo: Nate D. Sanders Auction

While raising a family, Coretta assisted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) by organizing Freedom Concerts in which she sang freedom songs, read poetry and narrated the story of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1964 she performed a critically-acclaimed Freedom Concert at Town Hall in New York City to raise funds for the SCLC. That same year Martin Luther King was named Time magazine's "Man of the Year" and Coretta was described as a "talented young soprano." Eventually Coretta had to put her musical career on the shelf. "There's always an important cause, a need, that's more important, it seems, than what you want to do, " she said. "And because I care so deeply about, you know, people and the needs of our community and our world it seems sort of selfish to think about what it is that I want to do." Also, she commented, "if you're a performer and particularly a singer you have to rest a lot, you can't sing tired." During the turbulent years of the civil rights movement there wasn't much time for Coretta, Martin or the four children to rest a lot.

Coretta Scott King & Stevie Wonder In 1980 Stevie Wonder released his platinum-selling album Hotter Than July which included the hit single Happy Birthday – a praise song as well as a protest song for Martin Luther King. It would become the theme song of a campaign to make MLK Day a holiday, a campaign which featured the collaboration of Stevie Wonder and Coretta Scott King. The highlight of the campaign occurred when the two of them delivered to Congress a petition with 6 million signatures, the largest petition in the history of the United States. On January 15, 1981 over 25,000 people attended a rally on the National Mall calling on the federal government to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday. Two years later President Ronald Reagan – who opposed the making of a national holiday – was forced by public opinion to sign legislation making MLK Day a reality.

Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Coretta Scott King, discusses her heritage here.

Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel? by Paul Robeson

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Sources from which I summarized, paraphrased or quoted directly: Stephen Raskauskas. "Why Coretta Scott King Called Music Her 'First Love' but Gave Up Her Career as a Singer, 1/15/2018 ; Official Coretta Scott King Memorial Program, 2/7/2006; Wikipedia; Oxford University Press OUPblog, 1/31/2006; African Methodist Episcopal Church website; classicfm.com/discovermusic; The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church website; Chuck Arnold, NY Post (online), 1/18/21; Bostonia, Boston University Alumni Magazine, online; wfmt.com. Firt. This edition of Friday's Labor Folklore was originally published on 5/28/2021. Portrait photo of Ms. King from her official memorial program.