Civil rights icon Coretta Scott King was an anti-nuclear activist too!
February 9, 2017
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The civil rights hero Coretta Scott King, an equal partner in the world betterment work of her husband the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is in the news. As reported by Democracy Now!, in segments entitled "Made Me Feel We Were Back in the 1950s: Coretta Scott King Memoirist on Silencing of Elizabeth Warren," and "Sen. Elizabeth Warren Silenced by GOP for Reading Coretta Scott King's Letter about Jeff Sessions," Coretta Scott King's words written 31 years ago were considered too hot for the U.S. Senate floor by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky), so Sen. Warren (Democrat-Massachusetts) was "red carded" -- blocked from speaking any more about Sen. Jeff Sessions' (Republican-Alabama) nomination by President Donald J. Trump for Attorney General.

(See also New York Times coverage, including a link to Sen. Warren's Facebook Live reading of Coretta Scott King's letter (done just moments after Sen. Warren was silenced by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor), and the written text of the 1986 letter, as well as the full congressional testimony -- all of which, Democracy Now! has reported, arch-segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC, Chair of the Judicicary Committee overseeing Sessions' nomination for a federal judgeship in 1986), almost certainly intentionally (that is, it was not a mistake or clerical error), did not include in the official Congressional Record at the time.)

Less known than her civil rights activism is that Coretta Scott King was also an anti-nuclear weapons activist. A photo, displayed at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change, shows Coretta Scott King marching with Women's Strike for Peace. Her placard reads "Let's Make Our Earth A Nuclear-Free Zone."

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).
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