Coretta

Title:

Coretta

My Life, My Love, My Legacy

Author:

King, Coretta Scott

Reynolds, Rev. Dr. Barbara

Subject:

Biography & Autobiography

African American Nonfiction

Nonfiction

History

Description:

Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPRThe New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceThe Washington Post's Books to Read in 2017USA Today, "New and Noteworthy"Read it Forward, Favorite Reads of January 2017A Parade Magazine Pick"This book is distinctly Coretta's story . . . particularly absorbing. . . generous, in a manner that is unfashionable in our culture."—New York Times Book Review"Eloquent . . . inspirational"—USA Today The life story of Coretta Scott King—wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and singular twentieth-century American civil and human rights activist—as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds.Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. While enrolled as one of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, she became politically and socially active and committed to the peace movement. As a graduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music, determined to pursue her own career as a concert singer, she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs as well as shared racial and economic justice goals, she married Dr. King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, and so much more.As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for fifteen years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women's, workers' and gay rights and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom and human dignity. Coretta's is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful every day of her life.

Publisher:

Henry Holt and Co.

Date:

2017/01/17

Digital Format:

Open in browser

Download EPUB file

Kindle

Language:

English

Summary

Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR
The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
The Washington Post 's Books to Read in 2017
USA Today , "New and Noteworthy"
Read it Forward, Favorite Reads of January 2017
A Parade Magazine Pick

"This book is distinctly Coretta 's story . . . particularly absorbing. . . generous, in a manner that is unfashionable in our culture." -- New York Times Book Review

"Eloquent . . . inspirational"-- USA Today

The life story of Coretta Scott King--wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and singular twentieth-century American civil and human rights activist--as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds.

Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. While enrolled as one of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, she became politically and socially active and committed to the peace movement. As a graduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music, determined to pursue her own career as a concert singer, she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs as well as shared racial and economic justice goals, she married Dr. King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, and so much more.

As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for fifteen years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women's, workers' and gay rights and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom and human dignity.

Coretta's is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful every day of her life.

Author Notes

Coretta Scott King was an American civil rights activist, international human rights champion, author, the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., and the mother of four. Born in 1927 in Heiberger, Alabama, she died in 2006 in Rosarito Beach, Mexico.

Dr. Barbara Reynolds is an ordained minister, a columnist, and the author of several books, including Out of Hell & Living Well: Healing from the Inside Out . She was a longtime editorial board member of USA Today , won an SCLC Drum Major for Justice Award in 1987, and was inducted into the Board of Preachers at the 29th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. International College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College in 2014.

Reviews (2)

New York Review of Books Review

CORETTA: My Life, My Love, My Legacy, by Coretta Scott King with the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds. (Picador, $17.) A posthumous account, based on conversations between King and Reynolds over 30 years, explores King's private and public selves and the drive behind her push for perfection. Her viewpoint illustrates a brutal era as seen by a very specific type of African-American woman - an unsung backbone of the civil rights movement. ONE OF THE BOYS, by Daniel Magariei. (Scribner, $15.) Two brothers watch their father descend into addiction after a bitter custody battle - which he described as winning "the war." As our reviewer, Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, wrote, the novel swells "with wisdom about the selfdestructive longing for paternal approval and the devastating consequences of clinging to rotten models of masculinity." THE SPIDER NETWORK: How a Math Genius and a Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History, by David Enrich. (Custom House/William Morrow, $16.99.) In his fast-paced investigation, Enrich exposes the plot to manipulate Libor, the benchmark interest rate for banks across the world, which likely caused people to pay too much interest on everything from car loans to mortgages. AMERICAN WAR, by Omar El Akkad. (Vintage, $16.95.) In this debut novel, a (highly plausible) second civil war breaks out at the turn of the 22nd century. The United States has been ravaged by climate change: All of peninsular Florida is underwater, and the government has relocated to Columbus, Ohio. A ban on fossil fuels prompts parts of the South to secede. The conflict becomes personal for 12-year-old Sarat, a refugee who is groomed for insurgency after growing up in a shipping container, then watching her parents die. THE NATURE FIX: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams. (Norton, $15.95.) The Romantics probably had it right: Spending time out of doors can be an antidote to industrialization's ill effects. Williams, a contributing editor for Outside magazine, recounts how the outdoors can do everything from lift moods to help veterans cope with PTSD, with plenty of satisfying detail. MISS BURMA, by Charmaine Craig. (Grove, $16.) In mid-20th century Burma, Benny, a character based on Craig's Jewish grandfather, marries Khin, a woman of a persecuted ethnic minority. The family - including the daughter, the "Miss Burma" of the title - becomes entwined with the country's fate, and the story addresses questions of identity, history and trust.

Library Journal Review

An autobiography of King, as told at the end of her life to writer and ordained minister Reynolds. (LJ 12/16) © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

New York Review of Books Review

Library Journal Review

Helpful Links

Research Links

Contact

Events and Rooms

Follow Us

Today's Hours