Civil Rights Icon Coretta Scott King Dies
By Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2006
Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and an advocate for peace and nonviolent social change in her own right, died on January 31. She was 78.
King had been in poor health since suffering a stroke and heart attack last August. Although she appeared at a Martin Luther King Day dinner on January 14, she did not speak.
After her husband’s assassination in Memphis, TN, on April 4, 1968, King became an unflagging advocate of countless social and political issues, from the struggle for civil rights in the U.S. to the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
Born into rural poverty in Heiberger, AL, King was studying music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1952 when she met her future husband, a young graduate student and minister who hailed from a prominent Atlanta family. They married a year later. Left with four young children after her husband’s assassination, King became a tireless advocate of his causes and an inspirational figure around the globe.
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards are presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Committee of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Ethnic Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) and are given to African-American authors and illustrators for their outstandingly inspirational and educational contributions. Since the award’s inception in 1969, more than 175 titles have been honored with the Coretta Scott King Award.
Fran Ware, chair of ALA’s Coretta Scott King Awards Committee, says the award, granted to an outstanding African-American writer, will continue to trumpet King’s message of peace and love. “It’s important to get out to teachers and librarians accurate portrayals of [African-American] life and that we really do promote the values that Mrs. King stood for: truth, peace, love, and honesty,” Ware says. “When the jury makes the selection [of King award winners], they look for those values in the books.”
Julius Lester’s Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun) received this year’s author award, and Rosa (Holt), illustrated by Bryan Collier and written by Nikki Giovanni, received this year’s illustrator award. In 2002, King attended the awards ceremony and has been known to refer to the winners as “her books,” says Satia Orange, director of ALA’s office for literacy and outreach services and EMIERT liaison.
“Today is both our 'Day Of Tears’ as we hang our heads low in sorrow, and our 'Day of Jubilee,’ as we celebrate the legacy of our beloved Mrs. King,” Ware said. “May she rest in peace.”
