The title of this thread is a bit harsh with all those exlamation marks and the harsh language. Kind of reminds me of that Fox News producer who could be heard in the background saying "Pope is dead... pope is dead....HELLO....pope is dead".

lovemachine said:

yeah





Very sad She's with her husband now.

Gay Civil Rights Advocate Coretta Scott King Dies

(Atlanta, Georgia) Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., died this morning. She was 78.

Until she was disabled by a stroke last August King frequently spoke out, often to the anger of some Black pastors, in favor of LGBT civil rights.

King called her critics "misinformed" and said that Martin Luther King's message to the world was one of equality and inclusion.

In 2003, she invited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to take part in observances of the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.

It was the first time that an LGBT rights group had been invited to a major event of the African American community and drew the ire of some of the other speakers.

King said her husband supported the quest for equality by gays and reminded her critics that the 1963 March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man.

NGLTF executive director Matt Foreman, who spoke at the 2003 anniversary, called Coretta King a model for equality.

“Our community has lost a dear and courageous friend, someone who was there for us when virtually no one else was," Foreman said on Tuesday.

"From the beginning Mrs. King understood that homophobia is hate and that hate has no place in the Beloved Community that she and Dr. King envisioned for our nation and our world."

In March 2004, she told a university audience that same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue and denounced a proposed amendment to the Constitution ban it.

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said in a speech at The Richard Stockton College in Pomona, New Jersey.

"A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

In her speech King also criticized a group of black pastors in her home state of Georgia for backing a bill to amend that state's constitution to block gay and lesbian couples from marrying.

“Mrs. King was a symbol of hope, of faith, of character and strength," said Ray Daniels, a spokesperson for the National Black Justice Coalition, the nation's largest Black LGBT rights organization.

"Her ceaseless struggles to achieve equality for all will surely be missed. We salute her determination and her never ending struggle for equal rights for all,” said Daniels.

"Once in a lifetime God grants us with the ability to witness an extraordinary life dedicated to justice. With Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., God smiled on us and fortunately granted us two," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese in a statement.

“All of us who aspire to live without prejudice or limits owe a very large debt to Mrs. King,” C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said following the announcement of her death.

“She was what Virginia Woolf once called that rare combination of ‘granite and rainbow,’ at once an immovable legacy on which we all stood and a luminous reminder of the arc waiting just behind the rain. A tireless advocate for equality, she leaves us both her own work and the work we must all yet do.”

Gay Democrats also remembered King's contributions.

"Standing behind a great movement was a grand woman who shouldered the hopes of our American dream," said Eric Stern, National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director.

"Returning to Memphis five days after the assassination of her husband to demand justice for working families, Coretta Scott King continued her advocacy for the expansion of liberty embodied by their partnership. Mrs. King argued that our nation would not fulfill its promise unless all Americans, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens, were afforded equal treatment under the law."

Coretta Scott met Martin Luther King Jr. while she was studying at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music.

They were married in June of 1953 and a year later moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to take on the leadership of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

When Dr. King was assassinated she was a young widow with four young children to raise.

The killing instantly thrust her to the forefront of the civil rights movement. She took up her husband's mantle of social justice crusader speaking in forums across this country and around the world.

Her death was announced by former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young. He said that she will be buried beside her husband at the Martin Luther King Center for NonViolent Social Change.

lovemachine said:

I was thinking that too.

It seems like every other day I log on & see a headline that makes me gasp & hold my heart

applekisses said:

I was just in shock, but u are right, sorry: do not mean 2 be inconsiderate.

i can't believe this isn't a sticky.

sinisterpentatonic said:

That's exactly what I was just thinking.

Stymie said:

co-sign...

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

i like that



CAN WE MAKE THIS A STICKY ALREADY?! damn.

luv4u said:

thank you

His kids don't even represent his actual beliefs. Martin Luther King was a far left, Progressive, who represented the meek and the working class in America. His kids think he was just some ultra-preachy goof.

The best woman in America has left us. Amen and peace to everything she represents.

2freaky4church1 said:

I beg to differ....

MartyMcFly said:

i really, really wish you hadn't done that.
inconsiderate.
[Edited 2/2/06 11:37am]

SammiJ said:

agreed!

did she die of natural causes?


or was it that damned makeover on Oprah

charlottegelin said:

i'm not sure, but she did pass in her sleep...

ovarian cancer

RIP

charlottegelin said:

i really, really wish you hadn't done that.
inconsiderate.

MartyMcFly said:

I'm sorry - I did not mean to cause offence.

To be honest, I'd never heard of her before that Oprah show (I don't live in the US) and when I did find out who she was I thought WHY is she having a makeover on Oprah? It seemed undignified somehow! It made me feel all weird and I cried a little - they made her look like someone else and she was such a good sport about it

charlottegelin said:

I wasn't being serious...

As for Oprah... just look at that picture, it kinda says it all... she's almost pushing mrs. King out of the frame there.... she's a fuckin' megalomaniac.... but that's another topic entirely....

MartyMcFly said:

Poor Mrs King looked so unsure the whole time

MartyMcFly said:

What the hell? What a horrible thing to put on the thread for the mother of the civil rights movement. How horrible is it that it is still on here days later. How horrible is it that there had to be a request for it to be made a sticky.

Wow.

charlottegelin said:

She had a makeover because she has had the same hair-do for the last 40 years and Oprah was trying to help soften her look. That was one of the niceset things someone has publicly done for her, along with moving her to Buckhead. Her old house in Vine City wasn't fit her anymore.

Stymie said:

it's true

year after year we're losing grasp of things that matter, and instead of taking it seriously, it's all a joke...

depressing if u ask me...