BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for April 27.

Coretta Scott King was born.

She was an American civil rights activist who was the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.

She graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and in 1951 enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. While working toward a degree in voice, she met Martin Luther King, Jr., then a graduate theology student at Boston University.  

Coretta Scott King joined her husband in civil rights activism in the 1950s and ’60s, taking part in the Montgomery bus boycott (1955) and efforts to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Following the assassination of her husband in 1968 and the conviction of James Earl Ray for the murder, she continued to be active in the civil rights movement.

She founded in Atlanta the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which was led at the turn of the 21st century by her son Dexter.

She was the recipient of various honors and tributes both before and after her death. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2011.

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