Coretta Scott King Publicly Opposed Vietnam Before MLK - and Urged Him to Follow

"Much of the scholarship and public memory of King has long privileged his work in the South, reinforcing the idea that racism was a regional aberration rather than a national system. This narrowing also obscures the intellectual and political partnership at the heart of King's work, particularly the leadership of Coretta Scott King, whose global vision, antiwar activism, and organizing shaped both King's politics and the broader freedom struggle."

"Historian and civil rights scholar Jeanne Theoharis challenges this hollowed-out version of King. In her new book, King of the North, she shows that King understood racism as a national crisis and devoted years to fighting school segregation, housing discrimination, police brutality, and liberal resistance in Northern cities such as Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. These efforts were often met with hostility from white liberals who supported civil rights in theory while resisting it in practice."

Public officials invoke Martin Luther King Jr. to call for restraint and civility while policing and policy actions undermine the political edge of his legacy. Scholarship and public memory have overemphasized Southern activism, obscuring national patterns of structural racism and the central role of Coretta Scott King’s leadership and global vision. King treated racism as embedded in schools, housing, policing, and liberal governance, and waged sustained campaigns in Northern cities that required disruption, organizing, and pressure. Northern campaigns faced hostility from white liberals who affirmed civil rights in principle but resisted substantive change in practice.

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