Lambda Legal Mourns Loss of Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King’s contribution to our shared struggle for justice cannot be overstated. We feel a special debt of gratitude to this courageous leader. More eloquent than anything we can say are Mrs. King’s own words, spoken at Lambda Legal’s 25th anniversary celebration in Chicago in 1998:

“I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice.... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people. ...

Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida and many other campaigns of the civil rights movement.... Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.”

We at Lambda Legal salute Mrs. King’s enormous contributions not only to the LGBT community but to the unending struggle to uproot inequality wherever it exists.

*Lambda Legal was honored not once, but twice by Coretta Scott King’s presence when she spoke at our silver anniversary nationally and the fifth anniversary of the opening of our Midwest Regional Office. Read Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Patricia M. Logue’s article detailing those occasions here.*