Coretta Scott King Interview

(On June 18, 1999, Coretta Scott King addressed the Academy of Achievement at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Excerpts from her remarks on that occasion are interspersed throughout this interview.)

What was life like for you when you were growing up?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Coretta Scott King: I grew up in the Deep South. It was totally segregated in terms of race, and everything was separate but unequal. I had wonderful parents who inspired me to be the best person that I could be, and my mother always told me that I was going to go to college, even if she didn't have but one dress to put on. So I grew up knowing that I was going to somehow find a way out of the situation I grew up in.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

I grew up on a farm. We were culturally deprived, but we were not poor in the sense that we didn't have very much. We had limited resources, because in the country at that time nobody had very much, and we had probably more than most people.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. 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. When I went to the movies with other black children, we had to sit in the balcony while the white kids got to sit in the better seats below. We had to walk to school while the white children rode in school buses paid for by our parents' taxes. Such messages, saying we were inferior, were a daily part of our lives. But I was blessed with parents who taught me not to let anyone make me feel like I wasn't good enough, and as my mother told me, "You are just as good as anyone else. You get an education and try to be somebody. Then you won't have to be kicked around by anybody, and you won't have to depend on anyone for your livelihood, not even a man."

[ Key to Success ] Courage

My parents taught me some wonderful values that have have stayed with me, and I've built on them throughout my life. If it hadn't been for my parents, who I consider heroes, I wouldn't be the kind of person I am. I am very thankful and grateful for them. So I went to a good school, a good private school, because that was the only school close by, and it was semi-private at the time, and that school also prepared me to go on to college.

I went to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Antioch College, as you probably realize, is a college that teaches people how to have a world view. All races and religions were represented there, and it was an excellent education. I had a very broad background in liberal arts, and I had work experience as well. Antioch was about making change in societies, about social change, which was preparing me at that time for the role that I would play later in life.

Did you have any favorite books when you were growing up? Is there something you remember reading as a young person that had a big impact on you?

Coretta Scott King: I was inspired by the words of many, many persons. I used to recite a lot of poetry, and I was inspired by the words of Longfellow, "Lives of great men all remind us..." Even though I was a female, I thought, "Of course, that means me, too."

    "Lives of great men all remind us
    We can make our lives sublime
    And departing leave behind us
    Footprints on the sands of time."

And so on.

Besides your parents, were there other heroes or role models who were particularly important to you?

Coretta Scott King: I was inspired by the likes of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, because I was in high school during the 'forties, and of course President Roosevelt was a hero of mine. I used to love to hear him speak, and I recognized the voice whenever he came on the radio, because we didn't have televisions back then. I never got to meet Mrs. Roosevelt. Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, a black woman who became an advisor to President Roosevelt and founded a school in Florida -- the Bethune-Cookman College -- was another great black woman that was a role model for me. And then, of course, there was Paul Robeson, who was a great singer and had such a commanding presence. When I first met him and he performed, you could just feel so much power when he walked out on the stage, and his words were so meaningful -- his very deep voice, both speaking and singing.

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