for Coretta Scott King: 'Together at last, together at last. Thank god, almighty, together at last', by Rev Joseph Lowery - 2006

6 February 2006, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Georgia, USA

Sit down before I take up an offering.

(LAUGHTER)

I am neither a gambler nor better. But who could have brought this crowd together except Coretta?

(APPLAUSE)

LOWERY: I'm going to behave.

(LAUGHTER)

Lord have mercy.

(APPLAUSE)

How marvelous that presidents and governors come to mourn and praise. But in the morning will words become deeds that meet needs?

(APPLAUSE)

Leave me alone, Sharpton.

(LAUGHTER)

Shut up, Jesse.

I've been asked to recognize the board of directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and president Steele who are here.

Would you stand?

(APPLAUSE)

Coretta was the first lady of SCLC. What a family reunion, Rosa and Martin reminiscing.

They'd just begun to talk when Martin seemed to not to listen. He started to walk. The wind had whispered in his ear, "I believe somebody is almost here."

"Excuse me, Rosa," Martin said as he did depart. His soul was on fire, he just couldn't wait. His spirit leaped with joy as he moved toward the pearly gates.

Glory,, hallelujah. And after 40 years, almost 40 years, together at last, together at last. Thank god, almighty, together at last.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you, Coretta.

Didn't she carry her grief with dignity?

(APPLAUSE)

Her growing influence with humility? She secured his seed, nurtured his nobility. She declared humanity's worth and vented their vision, his and hers, for peace on all the earth.

She opposed discrimination based on race. She frowned on homophobia. And gender bias she rejected on its face. She summoned the nations to steady war no more. She embraced the wonders of a human family from shoulder to shoulder.

Excuse me, Maya.

She extended Martin's message against poverty, racism and war. She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar. We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there.

(APPLAUSE)

But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance, poverty abound. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor.

Well, Coretta had harsh critics, some no one could please. But she paid them no mind. She kept speaking for the least of these.

Now I'm about through.

As we get older, or so I'm told, we listen into he heaven like the prophets of old.

I heard Martin and Coretta say do us a favor, Joe. Those four little children I spoke of in '73, they are fine adults now as all can see. They already know but tell them again, we loved them so dear.

Assure them we'll always be near, their troubles to bless and sanctify to them their deepest distress. Tell them we believe in them as we know you do. We know their faith in god and their love for each other will see them through.

Assure them at the end of the tunnel awaits god's light, and we're confident that they will always strive for the right. Tell them don't forget to remember that we're as near as their prayer and never afar, and we can rest in peace because they know who and whose they are.

(APPLAUSE)

What a family reunion.

Thank you, lord.

Just the other day I thought I heard you say, Coretta, my child, come on home. You've earned your rest. Your body's weary. You've done your best.

Her witness and character always strong, her spirit a melody from heaven's song. Her beauty warm like the rays of the sun.

Good night, my sister. Well done. Well done.

For Coretta Scott King: 'Born of flesh and destined to become iron', by Maya Angelou - 2006

7 February 2006, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia

(Singing: "I open my mouth to the Lord and I won't turn back, no. I will go, I shall go. I'll see what the end is gonna be.")

In the midst of national tumult, in the medium of international violent uproar, Coretta Scott King's face remained a study in serenity. In times of interior violent storms she sat, her hands resting in her lap calmly, like good children sleeping.

Her passion was never spent in public display. She offered her industry and her energies to action, toward righting ancient and current wrongs in this world.

She believed religiously in non-violent protest.

She believed it could heal a nation mired in a history of slavery and all its excesses.

She believed non-violent protest religiously could lift up a nation rife with racial prejudices and racial bias.

She was a quintessential African-American woman, born in the small town repressive South, born of flesh and destined to become iron, born -- born a cornflower and destined to become a steel magnolia.

She loved her church fervently. She loved and adored her husband and her children. She cherished her race. She cherished women. She cared for the conditions of human beings, of native Americans and Latin -- Latinos and Asian Americans. She cared for gay and straight people. She was concerned for the struggles in Ireland, and she prayed for nightly for Palestine and equally for Israel.

I speak as a -- a sister of a sister. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on my birthday. And for over 30 years, Coretta Scott King and I have telephoned, or sent cards to each other, or flowers to each other, or met each other somewhere in the world.

We called ourselves "chosen sisters" and when we traveled to South Africa or to the Caribbean or when she came to visit me in North Carolina or in New York, we sat into the late evening hours, calling each other "girl." It's a black woman thing, you know. And even as we reached well into our 70th decade, we still said "girl."

I stand here today for her family -- which is my family -- and for my family and all the other families in the world who would want to be here, but could not be here. I have beside me up here millions of people who are living and standing straight and erect, and knowing something about dignity without being cold and aloof, knowing something about being contained without being unapproachable -- people who have learned something from Coretta Scott King.

I stand here for Eleanor Traylor and for Harry Belafonte, and I stand here for Winnie Mandela. I stand here for women and men who loved her -- [Constancia] "Dinky" Romilly. On those late nights when Coretta and I would talk, I would make her laugh. And she said that Martin King used to tell her, "You don't laugh enough." And there's a recent book out about sisters in which she spoke about her blood sister. But at the end of her essay, she said, I did have -- "I do have a chosen sister, Maya Angelou, who makes me laugh even when I don't want to." And it's true. I told her some jokes only for no-mixed company.

Many times on those late after -- evenings she would say to me, "Sister, it shouldn't be an 'either-or', should it? Peace and justice should belong to all people, everywhere, all the time. Isn't that right?" And I said then and I say now, "Coretta Scott King, you're absolutely right. I do believe that peace and justice should belong to every person, everywhere, all the time."

And those of us who gather here, principalities, presidents, senators, those of us who run great companies, who know something about being parents, who know something about being preachers and teachers -- those of us, we owe something from this minute on; so that this gathering is not just another footnote on the pages of history. We owe something.

I pledge to you, my sister, I will never cease.

I mean to say I want to see a better world.

I mean to say I want to see some peace somewhere.

I mean to say I want to see some honesty, some fair play.

I want to see kindness and justice. This is what I want to see and I want to see it through my eyes and through your eyes, Coretta Scott King.

[Sings: "I open my mouth to the Lord and I won't turn back, no. I will go, I shall go. I'll see what the end is gonna be."]

Thank you.

Preeminent MLK historian Dr Clayborne Carson, the man chosen by Coretta Scott King as the founding director of the Dr Martin Luther King Centre for Education and Research, spoke about Coretta’s life in this episode of the podcast.