Page 2 The Skanner BLACK HISTORY EDITION February 22, 2017
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Opinion
Reynold’s Coretta Scott King Memoir Is a Must-Read
J
ournalist Rev. Dr. Barba-
ra Reynolds offers us the
opportunity to remem-
ber history in the Coretta
Scott King memoir, “My Life,
My Love, My Legacy.” Reyn-
olds took copious notes and
made extensive recordings in
the decades that she worked
and travelled with Coret-
ta Scott King, and she has
turned them into a memoir.
Completed in 2007, it has tak-
en a decade for the book to be
published, largely because of
complications with the King
estate. But Reynolds chooses
not to talk about the complica-
tions, instead choosing to talk
about the many ways her life
was enriched and enhanced
by her association with Mrs.
King. She also chooses to il-
luminate the leadership roles
that Mrs. King embraced,
both while her husband, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was
living, and after his death.
The book is a great and inspi-
rational read, especially now,
when so many have despaired
at the irrational-seeming
leadership of Donald Trump.
It is a reminder that it took 15
years of persistence to estab-
lish the King holiday that we
now all take for granted.
It is easy to forget that
Julianne
Malveaux
NNPA
Columnist
Congressman John Conyers
(D-Mich.) introduced the
King holiday legislation in
1968, just days after Dr. King’s
assassination. He introduced
it again and again, year after
year. According to Coretta
Scott King, the bill was reject-
ed more than 70 times. But
she, and Conyers, persisted
“
holiday, but through a rules
change, a two-thirds vote was
needed to establish a holiday
instead of a simple majority.
In 1979, the bill lost by a mere
five votes.
Agitation continued after
this loss. A petition drive
yielded six million signa-
tures. Stevie Wonder released
his “Happy Birthday” song
that advocated for a King hol-
iday. Senator Jesse Helms op-
posed the holiday, introduc-
ing a 300-page document that
detailed King’s “Communist
activities.” Senator Daniel
Patrick Moynihan was so out-
raged by the document that he
threw it to
the ground,
describing
it as a “pack-
et of filth.”
On Oct. 19,
1983, the Senate passed King
holiday legislation 78-22, fol-
lowing a House vote of 338-90.
President Ronald Reagan
signed the bill into law on Nov.
3, 1983, establishing the King
holiday on the third Monday
of January, beginning in 1986.
Some states dragged their
feet. Arizona did not acknowl-
edge the holiday until a Super
Bowl boycott in 1992. South
Carolina waited until 2000 to
Reynold’s memoir shows
Coretta Scott King as a
leader in her own right
in their efforts to create a na-
tional holiday. Coretta Scott
King met with the reformed
segregationist Sen. Robert
Byrd.
She says she would have
been “anxious” to meet with
a man who filibustered the
1964 Civil Rights Bill, but was
assured that his views had
changed.
Indeed, Byrd supported the
effort to establish the King
acknowledge it.
We often see Coretta Scott
King as a stoic, dignified lady,
and a graceful partner to civil
rights leader Dr. Martin Lu-
ther King.
This memoir shows her
from another perspective, as
a leader in her own right, as
a dedicated pacifist, as a per-
sistent adherent to principles
of nonviolence, as a gritty
fighter for her husband’s leg-
acy through the holiday and
the establishment of the King
Center.
We also see her as a moth-
er, and can read her assess-
ment of her children, their
strengths and their challeng-
es.
While I had the privilege
to be in Mrs. King’s compa-
ny on many occasions, and
to speak with her personally
and at length more than once,
this book adds a depth to my
knowledge of her and makes
me wish I’d had the opportuni-
ty to know the side of her that
laughed with Betty Shabazz
and Myrlie Evers (I laughed
with both of those women, but
never Coretta), enjoyed opera
and let her hair down.
Read the rest of this commentary at
TheSkanner.com
Freedom’s Journal to the NNPA, Black Press Is Still Relevant
N
o one is better equipped
to tell your story better
than you.
And logic stands to
reason that no one is better
equipped and more passion-
ate about telling our story
than us. The stories of Blacks
in America are equally as
triumphant as they are trag-
ic. And many, if not most, of
these stories would be lost
to time, if not for the Black
Press. And in an age where
Black people are both pro-
gressing exponentially and
under attack daily, the need
for the Black Press has nev-
er been more apparent. And
in a day where all media is
under assault from the high-
est level, we must exalt the
nations more than 200 Black
newspapers, as they continue
to serve as the defenders and
the vanguard progress, enter-
prise and liberty.
Since the days of Freedom’s
Journal — the first Black
newspaper, published in 1827
during the height if slavery —
to today, the Black Press has
been a voice reason, compas-
sion and defiance.
Harry
Colbert, Jr.
NNPA
Columnist
Margot Lee Shetterly, au-
thor of “Hidden Figures,” said
if not for the archives of the
Black Press such as the “Nor-
folk Journal and Guide” and
the “Pittsburgh Courier” the
inspiring story of the Black
women geniuses at NASA
would not have been possible
to tell. If not for the “Florida
“
ticed. In Baton Rouge, it may
have been a citizen’s lens that
captured the senseless killing
of Alton Sterling at the hands
of police, but it is “The Drum”
that keeps Sterling’s memory
alive and is shining the white-
hot spotlight on those respon-
sible for his homicide. When
factions of the so-called “alt-
right” — a movement of rac-
ism and intolerance — try to
co-opt and corrupt the words
(while ignoring the actions)
of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., it was the Rev. Dr.
Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., presi-
dent and CEO of the National
Newspaper Publishers Asso-
If not for the archives of the Black
Press...the inspiring story of the
Black women geniuses at NASA
would not have been possible to tell
Sun” in Orlando, the story of
the great training in science
and technology happening at
Bethune-Cookman Universi-
ty — one of the nation’s his-
torically Black universities
— would go untold and unno-
ciation (NNPA), who provided
a comprehensive and accu-
rate remembrance of the re-
vered freedom fighter.
Weeks after the inaugura-
tion of a president that most
in mass media are still trying
to wrestle with and
dissect, trying to
figure out how all
the major polls got
it wrong, it was the
Black Press that ran
article after article
talking about voter
suppression efforts
happening in key
battleground states
in the aftermath of
the United States
Supreme Court decision in
the Shelby v. Holder case that
gutted the Voting Right Act of
1965. Possibly, had the warn-
ings of the Black Press been
heeded, maybe, just maybe,
the nation and the world
would not be in the predica-
ment it now finds itself.
The NNPA wrapped up its
mid-winter training con-
ference in Ft. Lauderdale a
few weeks ago. The NNPA
is a trade association of the
more than 200 African Amer-
ican-owned
community
newspapers from around the
United States. Since its found-
ing 75 years ago, NNPA has
“consistently been the voice
of the Black community and
an incubator for news that
makes history and impacts
our country.”
As journalists, our mission
is to shine a light in the dark-
est of corners. That mission
was reaffirmed at the NNPA’s
2017 Mid-Winter Conference
with a level of commitment
and intensity never before
seen. “Freedom’s Journal” ran
the first leg of the relay. The
NNPA and the Black Press
have gladly accepted the ba-
ton and we are more than
capable of running the race.
In running that race, what
we ask of you, the reader, in
this age of digital media and
the sharing at the click of a
button; that you seek out and
share the valuable informa-
tion of the Black Press with
your networks as we must
preserve and protect the
Black Press.