As some anti-gay black clergy are likely to recall the legacy of Coretta Scott King and her contribution to the civil rights movement during sermons on Sunday, gay activists hope they will also heed her call for equal rights for all people.
"Ministers today need to sit back and realize what Dr. and Mrs. King were all about — they don’t honor her legacy when they spew homophobia and hatred," said Keith Boykin, an author and activist who serves as board president of the National Black Justice Coalition, a group that advocates gay rights issues.
Mrs. King, wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., died overnight on Jan. 30 at a holistic hospital in Mexico. She suffered a stroke in August and was afflicted with late-term ovarian cancer. The King family had not announced funeral arrangements by press time.
"She was a legend. She influenced many people," Boykin added. "And she was one of the few people who got it — that racism, sexism and homophobia are discrimination — like few others did. [Ministers] would do well to call her name and recall her words."
‘Champion of human rights’
While her legacy includes being the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Mrs. King forged a history of her own that included speaking out against a proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. In numerous speeches she publicly advocated for gay rights as well as raising awareness about HIV/AIDS.
In Atlanta, where she created the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change to honor her late husband, she worked alongside state legislators to try to defeat the state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
"She was a champion for human rights," state Rep. Tyrone B
rooks (D-Atlanta), a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to throw out Amendment 1, which was approved by voters in 2004, placing a ban on same-sex unions in the Georgia Constitution.
"She opposed discrimination in all forms and she remained consistent with her husband’s vision," he added. "Her legacy will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband’s legacy."
State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), who also worked to defeat passage of Georgia’s same-sex marriage ban, praised King as the "mother of the civil rights movement."
"I respected her not only for her grace and dignity under pressure, but her courage," he said.
Zandra Conway, spokesperson for In the Life Atlanta, which organizes the country’s largest annual Black Pride event, praised King for being a "woman of grace and justice."
"She advocated equal rights for the LBGT community and she publicly opposed the Georgia amendment to ban same-sex marriage. One of my favorite quotes from her is, ‘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,’" Conway added.
AIDS activist, too
The timing of news of King’s death — on the day of President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Speech as well as the confirmation of Samuel Alito as an associate justice on the Supreme Court — is particularly poetic, said Craig Washington, a black gay activist who works for the HIV advocacy group Positive Impact in Atlanta.
Bush began his speech Jan. 31 with a tribute to Mrs. King.
"I’m hoping her death serves as a clarion call for people in this country to call for the rights of LGBTQ people and that it also serves as a call to LGBTQ people to realize that liberation is not fully achieved until we focus on matters affecting us all," Washington said.
"We lost an amazing matriarch and lost our most well-known and consistent ally — she spoke out against homophobia and was very active in AIDS prevention mobilization," he said.
Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, also praised King’s advocacy for HIV and AIDS prevention.
"Mrs. King boldly framed our fight against the forces that fuel the AIDS epidemic as part of that mission. That is why she was among the first Heroes in the Struggle the Institute honored," Wilson said in a prepared statement.
"She contributed her voice to our campaigns time and again and to countless other efforts to help black America save itself from this scourge," he added.
Wilson also quoted her August 2001 speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Council marking the 20th anniversary of the epidemic.
"AIDS is a global crisis, a national crisis, a local crisis and a human crisis," Mrs. King said. "No matter where you live, AIDS is one of the most deadly killers of African Americans. And I think anyone who sincerely cares about the future of black America had better be speaking out."
"That address was one of many times in which she spoke eloquently about the movement to end this epidemic, and its place in black America’s struggle for justice and equality," Wilson said. "Her voice, her leadership, her compassion and her commitment will be sorely missed. But her legacy will live on in all of our individual commitments to building a secure future for our community."
Inspired beginning of Soulforce
Mel White, founder of Soulforce, an organization dedicated to ending "spiritual violence" against gay men and lesbians through non-violent actions against anti-gay churches and religious institutions, credits Mrs. King for "giving birth" to the group.
It was in 1995 when White, who used to ghostwrite for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson before accepting he was gay, was arrested for trespassing at Robertson’s CBN Broadcast Center to protest his anti-gay rhetoric. White spent 21 days in jail where he fasted.
During that time, Mrs. King sent her longtime executive assistant, Lynn Cothren, a gay man, to the jail to speak to him about non-violence and the term "soul force" used by Gandhi, later adopted by Martin Luther King Jr.
"She was my mother in faith," White said of Mrs. King. "She taught me that non-violence is something you do, it’s not something you don’t do. She literally gave birth to Soulforce. Her legacy and Dr. King’s legacy is we have to take it to the streets — we have to escalate and stigmatize these people who preach homophobia."
Cothren served as Mrs. King’s assistant for 23 years before leaving her employment in 2004. A former Atlantan, he now lives in Manhattan and is director of administration for the
