Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Coretta Scott King lies in state.

Thousands of friends, family and admirers are due to attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King, widow of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
President George W Bush will take part in the service, alongside ex-Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. In the past few days, tens of thousands of people in the state of Georgia have filed past Mrs King's open casket.

Mrs King died aged 78. She is the first African-American and the first woman to lie in honour in the state Capitol.

Tributes

Tuesday's funeral is to be held in Atlanta, at the New Birth Missionary Church where her daughter, Bernice, is a minister.

Flags are being flown at half-mast at all US government buildings, military posts and diplomatic missions abroad. Mrs King - who died on 30 January - had carried on her husband's work for racial equality after he was assassinated in 1968. "She leaves us all a better America than the America of her childhood," TV personality Oprah Winfrey said on Monday. Others who paid their respects to Martin Luther King's widow included the civil rights leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Coretta Scott King worked to secure her husband's legacy.

Waiting outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church where her casket was lying in honour on Monday, Navy sailor Dwight MacMutay said: "She was a great woman. We pray that we have someone to fill her shoes." He was one of the estimated 100,000 mourners to brave the rain to pay their last respects on Monday. Thousands more had already filed past her open casket in the state Capitol building over the weekend.

Legacy

Mrs King died in her sleep, after experiencing poor health in recent years.
She met her husband in Boston, married him in 1953, and supported him in his civil rights work. After his death, she raised their children while working to secure his legacy. In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King Jr Centre for Non-violent Social Change in Atlanta.
She saw the establishment of a national holiday to mark her husband's January birthday, from 1986.

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