America has died, news reports said Tuesday, January 31.
Flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff, as news emerged that Coretta Scott King passed away at the age of 78.
"We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country," the King family said in a statement The family said she died overnight after suffering a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005.
She reportedly died Monday, January 30 during her sleep in a California rehabilitation center where she was undergoing therapy for her stroke. Coretta King leaves behind a legacy of struggle for human rights when she not only was active in preserving the memory of her husband, but also participated in other political issues.
Following her husband ‘s assassinated in 1968; she began attending a commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark her husband’s birth every January 15, people who knew her said. She also honored presidents on different occasions including attending the state funeral of former president
HONORING PRESIDENTS
Lyndon Johnson, in 1973, and being present when President Ronald Reagan signed legislation establishing the Martin Luther King Day, during the 1980’s. Throughout the years Coretta King reaffirmed her long-standing opposition to apartheid, participating in a series of sit-in protests in Washington that prompted nationwide demonstrations against South African racial policies.
She also drew criticism from conservative groups by her opposition to capital punishment and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Coretta King was reportedly also a vocal advocate of women’s rights and the integration of lesbian and gay people in different areas of society, and AIDS/HIV prevention.
However Christians say she will mostly be remembered for her tireless efforts to fight injustice. "She was truly the first lady of the human rights movement," Rev. Al Sharpton said in a written statement.
FIRST LADY
"She was truly the first lady of the human rights movement," he said in published remarks. "The only thing worse than losing her is if we never had her." She told once that she was "more determined than ever" that her husband’s dream "will become a reality."
She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility, also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.," and, in 1969, founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
King saw to it that the center became deeply involved with the issues she said breed violence — hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism. "The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.
NUMEROUS HONORS
King received numerous honors for herself and traveled around the world in the process. In London, she stood in 1969 in the same carved pulpit in St. Paul’s Cathedral where her husband preached five years earlier, The Associated Press recalled.
"Many despair at all the evil and unrest and disorder in the world today," she preached, "but I see a new social order and I see the dawn of a new day," she was quoted as saying at the time
It was not immediately clear when the funeral would take place. (With reports from the United States and BosNewsLife Research)
