Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, civil rights leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. An advocate for African-American equality, she was a leader for the civil rights movement in the 1960s. King was also a singer who often incorporated music into her civil rights work. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. These Coretta Scott King quotes will motivate you.
Best Coretta Scott King Quotes
- “It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Love is such a powerful force. It’s there for everyone to embrace-that kind of unconditional love for all of humankind. That is the kind of love that impels people to go into the community and try to change conditions for others, to take risks for what they believe in.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. Discrimination against a working man is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical need is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“When the heart is right, the mind and the body will follow.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I am convinced that the women of the world, united without any regard for national or racial dimensions, can become a most powerful force for international peace and brotherhood.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will never be alone.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“We must eliminate the gulf of mistrust and ignorance that keeps us from learning from each other.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Behind every good man, there’s a good woman reminding you I knew you when you didn’t have nothing.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “If you give your life to a cause in which you believe, and if it is right and just, and if your life comes to an end as a result of this, then your life could not have been spent in a more redemptive way. I think that is what my husband has done.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Women, in general, are not part of the corruption of the past, so they can give a new kind of leadership, a new image for mankind.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Without Coretta Scott King, there would not have been a Martin Luther King, Jr. in the way that we know him.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on sexual orientation.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I’m fulfilled in what I do. I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes – the finer things of life – would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “All we seek is an America where every person is given the chance to productively contribute to his country and where he can receive a fair and equitable share of the wealth that production creates.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Because Dr. King was human and not divine – although we think he was divine, he was just a man, an extraordinary man, but a man – and he would get depressed from time to time and disappointed about all kinds of things relative to the movement.” ~ Coretta Scott King Quotes
- “I always knew that I was called to do something. I didn’t know what, but I finally rationalized after I met Martin [Luther King, Jr.] and it took a lot of praying to discover this, that this was probably what God had called me to do, to marry him.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed in retaliation.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “People need role models. They need to see examples of people in peoples’ lives.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “When aroused the American conscience is a powerful force for reform.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “There is a spirit and a need and a man at the beginning of every great human advance. Every one of these must be right for that particular moment of history, or nothing happens.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “If American women would increase their voting turnout by ten percent, I think we would see an end to all of the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“Violence diminishes our humanity.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “As an African American child growing up in the segregated South, I was told, one way or another, almost every day of my life, that I wasn’t as good as a white child.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Isn’t it strange how the leaders of nations can talk so eloquently about peace while they prepare for war? … There is no way to make peace while preparing for war.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “People have to allow themselves to be used by God and Martin [Luther King, Jr.] committed himself totally to God’s will and purpose and God is always waiting for someone who is willing to do that.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“I’m more determined than ever that my husband’s dream will become a reality.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Nonviolence is a method that transforms, first of all, the individual once you understand it and embrace it. It begins with you and, if you can, about transforming individuals so that they love unconditionally.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “This was really what I was supposed to be doing, and it was a great blessing to have discovered this, and to be doing what was God’s will for your life.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “It’s going to take an act of Congress to deal with poverty and hunger, not only in this country, but throughout the world. We have the resources but we don’t have the will.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“If a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “…We have an historic opportunity for a great global healing and renewal. If we will accept the challenge of nonviolent activism with faith, courage, and determination, we can bring this great vision of a world united in peace and harmony from a distant ideal into glowing reality.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I’ve always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy. The civil rights movement thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion. My husband’s struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “You cannot believe in peace at home and not believe in international peace. A war with Iraq will increase anti-American sentiment, create more terrorists, and drain as much as 200 billion taxpayer dollars, which should be invested in human development here in America.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“The greatest violence is seeing a child go to bed hungry.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “When Good Friday comes, these are the moments in life when we feel there’s no hope. But then, Easter comes.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I think if people really read Martin Luther King, Jr., then they would begin to understand what he really represented. The philosophy that he developed, of course, he was greatly influenced by Gandhi and Jesus Christ.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “How many must die before we can really have a free and true and peaceful society?” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “If sexual relations between consenting adults are not part of the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution, then American democracy is in trouble.” ~ Coretta Scott King Quotes
- “To really know someone is to have loved and hated him in turn.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Mama and Daddy King represent the best in manhood and womanhood, the best in a marriage, the kind of people we are trying to become.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “We have to launch a national campaign against homophobia in the black community.” ~ Coretta Scott King
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“Nonviolence first changes the individual.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people, and I should stick to the issue of racial justice.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “The more visible signs of protest are gone, but I think there is a realization that the tactics of the late sixties are not sufficient to meet the challenges of the seventies.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay-bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “If Martin [Luther King, Jr.]’s philosophy had been embraced and lived out in Iraq and other places, we wouldn’t have bin Ladens.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “Lesbian and gay people are a permanent part of the American workforce, who currently have no protection from the arbitrary abuse of their rights on the job.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “The process of nonviolence is one that takes time and those of us who’ve suffered, who’ve been persecuted over the years, would like to see things change, you know, overnight.” ~ Coretta Scott King
- “I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.” ~ Coretta Scott King
