Coretta Scott King died in 2006 after suffering a heart attack and stroke a year earlier. (Rick Diamond/WireImage/Getty Images)
Coretta Scott King would have turned 90 years old today, April 27, and Twitter users celebrated the icon’s life and legacy using #CSK90.
Born in 1927, King was known for her musical abilities early in life and obtained a bachelor’s degree in music and education from Ohio’s Antioch College in 1945 and another degree in voice and violin from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music during the next decade.
Her lasting impact was her involvement in social change efforts and the civil rights movement, which saw her participation in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and celebrating Ghana’s independence two years later with a trip to the nation. Although her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was one of the most prominent leaders of the movement in the 1950s and 1960s, Scott King’s work in the movement stood on its own, including pushing for the passage of 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Scott King’s work didn’t stop after her husband’s 1968 assassination. That year, she established the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and became president and CEO until handing over duties to her son, Dexter, in 1995. In the years after her husband’s death, Scott King became co-chair of the National Committee for Full Employment and the Full Employment Action Council forming a coalition of more than 100 organizations, including those for civil and women’s rights in 1974, and found herself and three of her children arrested in 1985 for protesting apartheid in South Africa.
Online, many remembered the life and accomplishments of Scott King, who died in 2006 at age 78.
#CorettaScottKing's activism began pre- #MLK AND continued after his April 1968 death. (D.C., July 1968, Poor People's Campaign) #CSK90 pic.twitter.com/A9cMEw8kOt
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center (@TheKingCenter) April 27, 2017
You inspire me, still. And teach me always. Thank you. "I'll always love my mama." Happy 90th birthday. I miss you. #CorettaScottKing #CSK90 pic.twitter.com/VtjnS8m4VG
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 27, 2017
Because of you, I am…Thank you for your sacrifice and, especially, for your love. Happy 90th, Mom. I honor you today and always. #CSK90 pic.twitter.com/5oqAbg9FTO
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) April 27, 2017
@TheKingCenter Is it me or does it look like sister CSK don’t play no games??
— rashid goodwin (@goodwin_rashid) April 27, 2017
@TheKingCenter @BerniceKing Such an awesome example of a woman ,wife, mother, and humanitarian. None like her
— Jaye Campbell/MxEng (@JayeCampbell2) April 27, 2017
Happy Birthday Coretta Scott King 🎂 visionary leader activist mother wife #CSK90 Sending You Blessings 🙏🎉🎊💝
— #上海上门#上海丝足#上海足浴 (@ARainSoul) April 27, 2017
@BerniceKing “Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.” #CSK90 ?#BeautifullyGorgeousSoul ❤
— StormDeshaye (@TheGoodStorm) April 27, 2017
She persisted
She insisted
Like a King
She could sing
Acapella
Aria
March in Selma
Name's Coretta
Do remember
Her forever #CorettaScottKing— Curtis Stephen (@curtisstephen23) April 27, 2017
