History is not always something that happened a long time ago. History sometimes happens within a blink of an eye. The world lost one of its greatest female pioneers of civil rights, Mrs. Coretta Scott King. She was the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King and is often referred to as”The First Lady of Civil Rights".

Mrs. King was most famously known as the widow of the late Dr. Martin Luther King but she was much more than that. She herself was a civil rights activist that pressed on toward the cause of equality even after the assassination of her husband.

Mrs. King continued to serve the cause of justice and human rights; her travels took her throughout the world on goodwill missions to Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. In 1983, she marked the 20th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington, by leading a gathering of more than 800 human rights organizations, the Coalition of Conscience, in the largest demonstration the capital city had seen up to that time.

Over the years, she was active in preserving the memory of her husband, and in other political issues. After her husband was assassinated in 1968, she began attending a commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark her husband's birth every January 15 and fought for years to make it a national holiday, a quest that was realized in 1986, when the first Martin Luther King Day was celebrated.

Mrs. King was invited by President Clinton to witness the historic handshake between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman Yassir Arafat at the signing of the Middle East Peace Accords in 1993. In 1985 Mrs. King and three of her children were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington D.C., for protesting against that country's apartheid system of racial segregation and disenfranchisement. Ten years later, she stood with Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg when he was sworn in as President of South Africa.

Mrs. King was involved in numerous other civic causes including AIDS education, curbing gun violence, and was vocal in her opposition to capital punishment. She was also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

On August 16 2005, she was hospitalized after suffering a stroke and a mild heart attack. Initially, she was unable to speak or move her right side. She was released from Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on September 22, 2005, after regaining some of her speech and continued physiotherapy at home. Because of complications from the stroke, she was apparently unable to make her wishes known regarding the ongoing debate as to whether her late husband's birthplace should continue to be maintained by the city of Atlanta or the National Park Service.

On January 14, 2006, Mrs. King made her last public appearance at a dinner honoring her husband's memory. She died in her sleep on the evening of January 30, 2006 at a rehabilitation center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, where she was undergoing holistic therapy for her stroke and advanced stage of ovarian cancer. The main cause of death is believed to be respiratory failure.

President George W. Bush opened his State of the Union Address the night of January 31, 2006 by paying tribute to her. Her body will be returned to Atlanta and buried next to her husband at The King Center.

Although she died in 2006 at the age of 78, she remains an inspirational figure to men and women around the world.