NEWS
for immediate release February 1, 2006 ________________________________________________________________________ contact: Steve Klein (404) 526-8946
STATEMENT FROM THE KING CENTER ON THE DEATH OF MRS.CORETTA SCOTT KING
ATLANTA . . . Mr. Isaac Newton Farris, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of the King Center and nephew of Mrs. Coretta Scott King today issued the following statement on her death. “The death of my aunt and The King Center’s Founder, Coretta Scott King leaves a great void in the hearts of millions of people in America and throughout the world. And though we mourn her passing with a profound sense of loss, we thank God for her life and leadership, and her unique contributions to carrying forward the unfinished work of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Mr. Farris noted that Dr. King once said “I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength and calmness of Coretta, I could not have stood up amid the ordeals and tensions surrounding the Montgomery movement. I came to see the real meaning of that rather trite statement: "A wife can either make or break a husband. Coretta proved to be that type of wife with qualities to make a husband when he could have been so easily broken. In the darkest moments she always brought the light of hope.” Mr. Farris said that, although Coretta Scott King was frequently identified as “the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” she was “truly a great leader in her own right. Even before she met Martin Luther King, Jr., she was active in the struggle for racial equality, social justice and peace. As Dr. King’s wife, partner and co-worker in the American Civil Rights Movement, she made numerous contributions throughout the various campaigns of the Movement and he often sought her input in developing strategy.” After Dr. King was assassinated, Mrs. King worked tirelessly to insure that her husband’s life, work and teachings would be remembered and studied by future
generations. The King Center originated out of her personal vision, and she secured the involvement of leaders from all over the world in building The King Center and commemorating his life. It was her determined leadership that gave America its newest national holiday and then made it into a remarkable day of community and humanitarian service. One of Mrs. King’s proudest achievements was the establishment of the federal King holiday. She was successful in making the the King holiday a day of action and service, thus the slogan “A Day On Not A Day Off”. In addition to the King holiday, her leadership was instrumental in securing other social reforms, such as the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment legislation and the Anti-Apartheid Act. She also lent her support to campaigns for National health care, gun control, an end to the death penalty, disarmament and more funding for education. The primary focus and objective of the King family yesterday was to focus on getting Mrs. King back into the U.S. from Mexico. This process was expedited thanks to the assistance of the U.S. Consulate in Mexico. Now that she is back home in Atlanta the process of making arrangements has begun. The family anticipates conducting a press conference over the next few days to discuss the status of arrangements and ‘possibly’ preliminary autopsy results. Mr. Farris said that Mrs. King’s family expressed their gratitude to the public for the many prayers and expressions of sympathy that have poured into The King Center via email, telephone calls, fax messages and personal visits. Mr. Farris also thanked the media for their patience in this methodical process of getting information out to the public. “We have been overwhelmed by the global response to Mrs. King’s passing. Both the King family and King Center staff would ask for your continued patience and prayers as we attempt the monumental task of saying goodbye to our beloved leader, founder and world humanitarian, Coretta Scott King.“
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