Over the years we’ve shown her public side loyal wife, devoted mother, staunch defender of her famous husband’s legacy of nonviolence and social action. His leadership transformed a nation. Her strength and determination nurtured their children and secured his place in history.
But there was another side to Coretta Scott King that was rarely seen in the pages of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“What we never saw in the press while she lived was the character of the person we knew,” said Kent Matlock, a close friend and public relations executive. “She was kind and considerate. She cared about my well- being and my family’s well-being.”
Because of Mrs. King’s concerns about accuracy, she was reluctant to grant interviews, Matlock said. “But to her credit, she was never critical of the folks that were critical of her. She endured some very cutting editorials but she never attempted to cut back. That was a lesson for me.”
Longtime AJC reporter and columnist Maria Saporta is one of the few journalists that members of the King family have talked to over the years.
“The family and the business is so closely intertwined,” she said. “They were a very private family and felt they had to be. Andrew Young said the other day they had fame without fortune. [Mrs. King] lived very modestly.
“Families are complex and different individuals have strong views. Her first devotion was always to the kids.”
Hollis Towns, a former AJC reporter who covered the King family in the mid-1990s, conducted a wide-ranging interview with Mrs. King for a profile he wrote during the 1996 Olympic games.
“She told me that she thought the print media manipulated some of Martin’s words,” Towns said. “She was always very wary and gave very limited interviews to print journalists. She was much more comfortable with television interviews because she felt it was more difficult for television to edit her comments and take them out of context.”
Given the importance of the King family to Atlanta and the world, it’s unfortunate this newspaper didn’t have a better relationship with Mrs. King. Covering the thorny issues surrounding the King Center’s management and upkeep isn’t something this newspaper should have shied away from, but hearing from the King family more often would have better informed our coverage.
“The first time I interviewed [Mrs. King] was in January of 1997,” said longtime AJC reporter Mae Gentry. “The King estate had done a major deal with Time Warner to repackage King’s copyrighted books and speeches, among other things.
“When I asked her about accusations that the family was capitalizing on King, she started crying. I told her that I didn’t mean to upset her, and she said, ‘I’m not upset. I’m frustrated.’ ”
Gentry saw a different side of Mrs. King as she got to know her better. “Most people don’t know that she was a really wonderful person, very warm and kind.
“We had a mutual friend who told her that my mother had passed away. A couple of months later, I saw her at the 2003 Salute to Greatness after-party. She said, ‘Oh, Mae. Your mother died. Did I send you a card?’ When I said no, she responded, ‘I’m sorry. I meant to send you a card.’ ”
Towns, now managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, was similarly struck by Mrs. King’s affable nature and fondness for storytelling. She agreed to the lengthy interview because her son Dexter thought Towns’ previous stories were fair, he said.
“She was very friendly and talked about things that she’d never spoken publicly about before. She talked about Dr. King being a disciplinarian. She talked about his belief in nonviolence but joked that wasn’t necessarily what he practiced at home with his children.”
She revealed her desire to write a book about her life after her husband’s death and to record an album. She explained that she sported pantsuits to cover the surgical stockings she wore because of her poor circulation. “The article was about her coming out and mellowing over time,” said Towns.
Living one’s life on a stage can’t have been easy. In death, we’re seeing that Mrs. King was so much more than the caretaker of her husband’s legacy.
