IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 655 
Honoring the life and accomplishments of Mrs. Coretta Scott King and 
her contributions as a leader in the struggle for civil rights, and express-
ing condolences to the King family on her passing. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 31, 2006 
Mr. SENSENBRENNER submitted the following resolution 
RESOLUTION 
Honoring the life and accomplishments of Mrs. Coretta Scott 
King and her contributions as a leader in the struggle 
for civil rights, and expressing condolences to the King 
family on her passing. 
Whereas Coretta Scott King was an inspirational figure and 
a woman of great strength, grace, and dignity who came 
to personify the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement, for 
which she and her husband fought; 
Whereas Coretta Scott was born on April 27, 1927, to par-
ents Obadiah and Bernice Scott, was raised in rural Ala-
bama, graduated valedictorian from Lincoln High School, 
and received a B.A. from Antioch College in Yellow 
Springs, Ohio; 
Whereas Coretta Scott came of age in the segregated South, 
took an active interest in the emerging Civil Rights
•HRES 655 IH 
Movement as an undergraduate, and jointed the Antioch 
chapter of the NAACP, and the Race Relations and Civil 
Liberties Committees of Antioch College; 
Whereas Coretta Scott won a scholarship to study concert 
singing at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music; 
Whereas while in Boston, Coretta Scott met Martin Luther 
King, Jr., who was a graduate student studying for his 
doctorate at Boston University; 
Whereas after Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King, Jr. 
were married on June 18, 1953, Mrs. Coretta Scott King 
completed her degree in voice and violin at the New Eng-
land Conservatory of Music, and the young couple moved 
in September 1954 to Montgomery, Alabama, where Mar-
tin Luther King, Jr. had accepted an appointment as 
Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church; 
Whereas their first child, Yolanda, was born in 1955, just 
two weeks before the beginning of the Montgomery bus 
boycott, during which the King house was bombed; 
Whereas the Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise, Mar-
tin Luther, III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine; 
Whereas during Dr. King’s lifetime, Mrs. King served as an 
equal partner in the Civil Rights Movement, balancing 
the demands of raising their four children, serving as a 
pastor’s wife, and speaking before church, civic, college, 
fraternal, and peace groups; 
Whereas Mrs. King established and performed in more than 
30 successful ‘‘Freedom Concerts’’ that combined prose 
and poetry narration with musical selections to increase 
awareness and understanding of the Movement and the 
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which Dr. 
King served as the first president;
•HRES 655 IH 
Whereas Mrs. King stood side-by-side with her husband dur-
ing many civil rights marches and on other notable occa-
sions, including a 1957 trip to Ghana to mark that coun-
try’s independence, a 1959 trip to India to visit sites as-
sociated with Mahatma Gandhi, and a 1964 trip to Oslo, 
Norway, to accept Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize; 
Whereas just four days after her husband’s assassination on 
April 4, 1968, Mrs. King led a march of 50,000 people 
through the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, and later 
that year took his place in the Poor People’s March to 
Washington, D.C.; 
Whereas Mrs. King devoted her energy to carrying on her 
husband’s legacy of nonviolence and his work to create an 
America in which all people have equal rights; 
Whereas Mrs. King dedicated herself to developing and build-
ing the Atlanta-based Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for 
Nonviolent Social Change as an enduring memorial to 
her husband’s life and their dream of nonviolent social 
change and full civil rights for all Americans and, as its 
founding President, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer, 
she guided the creation and housing of the largest ar-
chive of documents from the Civil Rights Movement; 
Whereas Mrs. King was instrumental in seeing her husband’s 
birthday honored as a Federal holiday, an occasion first 
marked in 1986; 
Whereas Mrs. King received honorary doctorates from over 
60 colleges and universities and authored three books; 
Whereas Mrs. King worked to advance the cause of justice 
and human rights around the world and spoke out on be-
half of a number of important issues, including racial and 
economic justice, women’s and children’s rights, religious