Coretta Scott King, widow of MLK, dies after heart attack

In his class period Tuesday, as IU professor Frederick McElroy's Contemporary Black American Writing class finished "A Lesson Before Dying" -- a story about a black man's struggle to die with dignity -- he broke the news that Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had died.\nMcElroy, after hearing of King's death, gave a short lesson on how she not only died with dignity, but lived with dignity.\nBorn in Heiberger, Ala., she spent most of her life fighting for the equality of blacks in America and throughout the African diaspora. \n"Coretta had an equally significant career involving a lot of sacrifice," McElroy said to the class. "Four days after Martin's death, she led the garbage picker march in Atlanta." \nMcElroy went on to explain how King attended the New England Conservatory of Music, but put her own musical talents on the backburner to help her husband in the struggle for civil rights. \n"This was a very intelligent, aggressive woman," McElroy said. "She was at all the marches -- you can see that in the photos. They were partners in the movement. They were a power couple but because the movement started in a church and churches are conservative, she had to be more careful than, say, Hillary Clinton." \nLike Clinton, King struggled with her husband's extramarital affairs, but stayed with Dr. King despite his noted cheating, McElroy. He said he feels it was harder for her to be appreciated because she was a woman. \n"She saw the larger picture," McElroy said. "Though she struggled with his infidelity, she knew how much he meant to America. She was the first lady of Black America. It wasn't just loyalty to him, but loyalty to the causes of an era."\nKing was the first woman to give a commencement speech at Harvard and the first woman to give a sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. In 1970 she formed the Full Employment Action Council, protested apartheid and lobbied to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a national holiday. \nMcElroy said he was taken aback by her "aura" when he met King about five years after King's death outside of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where Dr. King gave sermons. \n"I was struck by how attractive she was," he said. "She had an aura of intelligence, faith and beauty. They had no fear. You would think a family that is constantly threatened with assassination would be fearful, but they were clearly a family of faith." \nJunior Heather Essex said she feels that with the death of King the faith necessary to fight for civil rights is slowly disappearing. \n"Well, it's the death of a dynasty -- it's like the first black family," Essex said. "The black community needs to look elsewhere for guidance and wisdom it takes to sustain us through the future." \nIn three months both King and Rosa Parks have died, and senior Tykia Rodgers said she feels that a chapter has closed and the nation is beginning a new era with many questions to answer.\n"Civil Rights pioneers are starting to die off so we have to ask ourselves, 'Is the civil rights movement over?'" Rodgers said. "We've become comfortable. We need a new face for civil rights ... a new generation." \nMcElroy, who said he feels the struggle for equality and justice is more sophisticated than when the Kings were leading the civil rights movement, said blacks need to follow in the footsteps of women like Parks and King who lived and died with dignity. \n"As a professor, I try to inspire young people to deal with these problems," McElroy said. "That is the first step Coretta, Martin, Rosa took: They said we have to confront these problems. \n"She sacrificed a lot for the good of humanity"