Excerpts: Tributes spoken, sung at funeral of Coretta Scott King

My presence here today as mayor of the city of Atlanta is equally a living witness and testimony to the voices of a freedom choir. A chorus made up of Septima Clark, Alberta King, Bernice Scott, Daisy Bates, Ella Baker, Jean Young, Mary McLeod Bethune, Constance Motley, Margie Pitts Hames, Bertha Mae Carter, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ethel Mae Mathews, Dorothy Bolton, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the newest member, Coretta Scott King. I am here because they lived, and I am here because they struggled. Mrs. King was a trained and gifted vocalist. . . . She sang for liberation. She sang for those who had no earthly reason to sing a song. Mrs. King’s commitment to the struggle for freedom forced her to occasionally sing a cappella, and too often, solo. Widowed with four children to raise, she committed herself to singing louder and more often. But mother Coretta made certain homework was checked, lunches were packed, and her children were safe. Four days after her husband was assassinated, with her children in tow, she traveled to Memphis. She addressed those in attendance, and the nation, describing within her a propelling moral force and an urge to move forward. In her words, she said, “I am impelled to come.” Concerned not only about the Negro poor, but the poor all over this nation, and all over the world. The last stanza, and the highest note of Coretta King’s freedom song, remains to be sung. She’s gathered us here today from all walks of life, and all persuasions, to lift our voices in songs of freedom, equality, social and economic justice. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the children the world over. Who among us will join the freedom choir? Who among us will sing Coretta’s song, with courage and conviction? To smother the cries of hatred, economic exploitation, poverty and political disenfranchisement. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for you and for me. Thank you, Coretta.

GEORGE W. BUSH

‘Her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness of segregation.’

We knew Mrs. King in all the seasons, and there was grace and beauty in every season. As a great movement of history took shape, her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. Coretta had every right to count the costs and step back from the struggle, but she decided that her children needed more than a safe home --- they needed an America that upheld their equality and wrote their rights into law. And because this young mother and father were not intimidated, millions of children they would never meet are now living in a better, more welcoming country. Having loved a leader, she became a leader, and when she spoke, America listened closely because her voice carried the wisdom and goodness of a life well lived. Some here today knew her as a girl, and saw something very special long before a young preacher proposed. She once said, “Before I was a King, I was a Scott.” And the Scotts were strong, and righteous, and brave in the face of wrong.

BILL CLINTON

‘She had to decide, “What am I going to do with the rest of my life?” '

I don’t want us to forget there’s a woman in [that casket]. Not a symbol. A real woman who lived and breathed and got angry and got hurt and had dreams and had disappointments. On April 5, 1968, the day after her husband was killed, she had to decide, “What am I going to do with the rest of my life? I have endured enough dangers, toils and snares.” Instead, she went to Memphis, the scene of the worst nightmare of her life, and led a march for striking sanitation workers in her husband’s honor. I’m sitting here and thinking I wish I knew what her kids are thinking. I wish I knew what her kids were thinking when she used to read books to them, what she said to them when their daddy got killed. It’s a lot harder for them to be them than it was to be us growing up. What are we going to do with the rest of our lives? So what will happen with the legacy of Coretta Scott King and Dr. King? This is the first day of the rest of our lives. We haven’t finished our long journey home. Success does not relieve the obligation to try. If you want to treat our friend Coretta like a role model, then model her behavior. We can follow in her steps. I always really admired her; I liked her very much, I liked being with her, I liked the way she maintained her dignity in the face of all the difficulties she faced.

GEORGIA GOV. SONNY PERDUE

‘She made this world a better world, a kinder world.’

Mary and I were moved on Saturday as we watched Georgians pay solemn tribute to Coretta Scott King as she lay in state in the Rotunda of the Georgia state Capitol. Over the course of that cold and windy February day and into the darkness of the night, 42,000 strong braved the chill to file past the casket and pay their final respects to Mrs. King. Coretta Scott King touched all of our lives through her lifetime of service to the cause that was yes, her husband’s cause, but no less her own. And we join Yolanda, Bernice, Dexter, and Martin in rejoicing today that their parents are together again. Mrs. King’s life would advance the cause of freedom, the cause of peace, and the cause of social justice. And by doing so, she made this world a better world, a kinder world, a more compassionate world than it would’ve been had God not lent her to us for the time that he did. Coretta Scott King ... has gone home, and so we offer our humble thanks for her time on this earth. And look forward to the time when we will meet her again, fulfilling the hope and the promise of eternal life.

REV. T.D. JAKES, Evangelist

‘She was able to persevere. She did it with grace.’

From a distance, just watching her, I knew she was a classy, great woman. When I got the call that she had had a stroke, I came and had prayer with her before she passed. Her faith was vibrant. She was able to persevere. She did it with grace. I expected to see somebody who looked like they had been ill. She was polished. Her hair was in place. Her nails were done. She and Dr. King laid a foundation that all of us stand on. Of course the work is not over, but the foundation has been laid. I know what it is like to lose both of your parents and feel like children again.

POET MAYA ANGELOU

‘We called ourselves chosen sisters’

She was the quintessential African-American woman, born in a small town, born a cornflower and destined to become a steel magnolia. She loved her church fervently. She loved and adored her husband and her children. She cherished her race. She cherished women. She cared for the conditions of human beings. I speak for the sister of a sister. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on my birthday. And for over 30 years, Coretta Scott King and I have telephoned or sent cards to each other, or flowers to each other, or met each other somewhere in the world. We called ourselves chosen sisters. And when we traveled to South Africa, or the Caribbean, or when she came to visit me in North Carolina or New York, we sat into the late evening hours, calling each other “girl.” Now that’s a black woman thing, you know. And even as we reached well into our seventh decade, we’d still say “girl.”. . . Those of us, we owe something from this minute on, so that this gathering is not just another footnote on the pages of history. We owe something. I pledge to you, my sister, I will never cease. I mean to say, I want to see a better world. I mean to say I want to see some peace somewhere. I mean to say I want to see some honesty, some fair play. I want to see some kindness and justice. This is what I want to see, and I want to see it through my eyes, and your eyes, Coretta Scott King. [singing] I open my mouth to the Lord, and I won’t turn back, no! I will go. I shall go. I’ll see what the end is gonna be!

Other tributes

MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS, Widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers

‘I knew her as the strong, focused, determined woman she was.’

She, Betty Shabazz and I were very dear friends, and we called ourselves members of a club no one would wish to join. I knew her as the strong, focused, determined woman she was. She was always full of love and forgiveness. I don’t think there is anyone else in life or death who could have brought us all together. I am going to miss her. I love her dearly. I do feel loneliness. Betty’s gone. Coretta’s gone. I am still here.

ELISABETH OMILAMI, Head of Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, a charity started by her father, the late civil rights worker Hosea Williams

‘She said, “It’s OK, Hosea. We’ll get this thing done.” '

It’s just her ability to be calm in the midst of the storm. She would calm Daddy down a lot. Once we were in [former Gov.] Joe Frank Harris’ office --- me, Daddy and Mrs. King. It was during the time of the Forsyth County march, and the governor said, “There will be no more marches in Georgia.” She just reached over and rubbed him on the back and said, “It’s OK, Hosea. We’ll get this thing done.”

GENEVA BAXTER, Associate dean of undergraduate studies, Spelman college

‘You were mesmerized by the way she captured an audience.’

When I think of Coretta I think of the last time she spoke here at Sisters Chapel at a convocation about two years ago. There is a calmness about the way she spoke. You were mesmerized by the way she captured an audience, by speaking very succinctly, but she got her message across. She spoke about how as long as there were injustices, as long as there was homophobia, there was always a place for Spelman women to be activists, to be revolutionaries, to pick up the gauntlet and carry on the fight.”