At the beginning of this project I exhorted people to spend the month reading books that weren’t only about the Civil Rights struggle, and this pick is not a deviation from that. Coretta Scott King was more than just Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s wife, as has been brought to national attention lately. Hers is the letter Senator Elizabeth Warren was trying to read when Mitch McConnell called her out of order and silenced her. (Interesting to note that later some male senators read the letter and Mitch didn’t try to cock block them.) In said letter, Mrs. King did not mince words:
Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters.
…he lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.
…The irony of Mr. Sessions’ nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods.
Welp.
You can read the whole letter here or listen to Elizabeth Warren read it below.
Coretta Scott King played an integral role in maintaining Dr. King’s legacy, but that’s not all of who she was. Her memoir, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, showcases that. Put together by journalist and scholar Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds from recorded conversations across 30 years, it focuses on Coretta, not just Mrs. King.
Table of contents for Tempest Challenge: Black History Month
- Tempest Challenge: Black History Month Edition
- Black Women in 19th Century American Life | Tempest Challenge BHM
- The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Scott Woods: Just Read Everything He Writes | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Eartha Kitt’s Biographies | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Melissa Harris-Perry at ELLE | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Why Black Stories Matter – Adam H.C. Myrie | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Sun Ra and Afrofuturism | Tempest Challenge BHM
- My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Parable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Linda Addison Will Scare You (In A Good Way) | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi | Tempest Challenge BHM
- 1984 & About Writing by Samuel R. Delany | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Anthologies & Collections | Tempest Challenge Black History Month
- Linkspam | Tempest Challenge Black History Month
- August Wilson’s Plays | Tempest Challenge BHM
- Support Black Authors, Artists, & Creatives | Tempest Challenge Black History Month
