Coretta Scott King's legacy remembered
By Paul Dunn, The Daily Reflector
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Coretta Scott King set a standard for grace, dignity and persistence, ECU students and faculty said during a ceremony commemorating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow.
King died Jan. 30 at the age of 78. About 80 people gathered Friday in EastCarolinaUniversity's Hendrix Theater in the MendenhallCenter to share their admiration for a woman who continued the struggle for civil rights after her husband's death.
As people filed into the auditorium, Friday, an Associated Press slide show played on a screen in front. Coretta Scott King's voice accompanied 15 chronological images highlighting her life, about half showing her and her husband together. One passage particularly impressed ceremony speaker Marilyn Sheerer, ECU dean of the College of Education.
"Martin never believed that there were insufficient funds in the great vault of opportunity in this nation," King said.
Sheerer wrote down those words before delivering her presentation, she told the audience. She praised King as a moral compass, effectively expanding her husband's legacy.
"What I admired most was her determination and her absolute persistence," Sheerer said. "We need to hold onto that at ECU (concerning diversity issues)."
Speaker Regina Twine, president of the ECU Black Student Union, lauded Coretta Scott King's grace, elegance and dignity.
"They say that behind every strong man is a strong woman, but Mrs. King was more than that," Twine said.
Keynote speaker U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield said, "When you talk about Martin Luther King Jr., you must out of necessity talk about Coretta Scott King, his wife and partner."
The 1st Congressional District Democrat and former North Carolina Supreme Court justice then delivered a civil rights history lesson.
Butterfield recounted the fight for passage of the mid-1960s Civil Rights Act and subsequent Voting Rights Act, liberally sprinkling his remarks with references to Martin Luther King, but seldom mentioning the famed civil rights leader's widow.
"The eyes of the world were watching the United States of America," said the 58-year-old, referring to the Selma, Ala., voting rights marches in March 1965 that eventually forced then President Lyndon Johnson to propose the Voting Rights Act.
Toward the end of his 20-minute oration, Butterfield shifted his thoughts to eastern North Carolina. He contended that tax cuts for the wealthy and expenditures for the Iraq war and Afghanistan operations are devouring money that could be used to help the region's poor.
"We're spending $1.5 billion each week in Iraq," he said. "What could we do with just one week's appropriation? You could institute projects and institutions that would change the lives of all the people in eastern North Carolina."
Other ceremony speakers included Taffye Benson Clayton, ECU assistant to the provost; M. Cole Jones, president of the ECU Student Government Association; and Glen Gilbert, dean of the ECUCollege of Health and Human Performance.
The ECU Gospel Ensemble also performed during the ceremony.
"No matter what, I'm gonna keep on praising the lord," they sang, rhythmically stamping their feet for emphasis.
Gilbert spoke last.
He recounted his days on the front lines of the civil rights movements, joking that "it didn't take much courage to march in Oregon. Can you imagine what courage it took to march in Alabama? Mrs. King became a target as soon as she married this man."
Twine summed up the commemoration by urging audience members to carry on the Kings' work.
"Dr. and Mrs. King are looking down on us and hoping that we don't drop the torch that they lit for us," she said.