10 Sweet Photos Of Martin Luther King Jr. And Coretta Scott King
Coretta once said that while Martin had to be serious in public, he was a playful, humorous family man. See glimpses of that in heartwarming moments shared by the iconic couple.
When Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday and holiday roll around each year, one thing I love to see are photos of Dr. King simply living his life with joy. Playing pool. Sharing a laugh. We know that he was a leader in activism, fighting, without cessation, for the civil rights of our people in the United States. We know that he led marches, he was jailed, he was attacked and he was inevitably killed for his great work. We see those images often of the marches, the speeches, the stoic side of the figure. So it’s delightful to see him smiling with friends, his children, and, of course, with his wife, Coretta.
It’s especially heartwarming to see images of Martin and Coretta giving each other hugs, a peck on the cheek, or playing in the house with their family. When you think back to all he accomplished and attempted to bring to fruition, it’s easy to forget that he died at just 39 years old. A father of four who was known, not by the world, but by those around him, as an animated person who loved roller skating and making loved ones laugh.
Such recollections were shared in a story done by writer Jeff Sharlet, who profiled the late Harry Belafonte, a good friend of Dr. King and activist heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement, for NPR in 2023. He described times when Martin would stay at Belafonte’s New York City apartment when he was visiting.
Some nights they’d talk tactics and strategy. Sometimes they’d just crack each other up. In the hall at Belafonte’s apartment – smaller now – there was a photograph of the two of them at Harry’s, the rarest of images of King, busting a gut with laughter, eyes squeezed shut – not the noble Christ figure we’re used to now, but a fat, jolly Buddha.
And no one knew this side of him better than Coretta.
“Martin had a great sense of humor, and we often wished that people, his masses of followers, could know him as we knew him. He had to be very serious in public, and people get the impression that you’re always serious and meditating. But Martin was just so human. That was one of the things that attracted me to him when I first met him,” Coretta shared in a 1978 interview that aired on WTTW.
“He would say, ‘When I get in the pulpit, I’m very serious. I don’t play.’ But when he was outside of that context, he was human and playful, and he could be as playful as a six-year-old child.”
Those images, in my mind, of course, bring a smile to my face. So do the few images of the couple looking like any other pair in love. Check them out as you honor the memory and work of one of the greatest men ever to live.
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1962
Civil Rights activist Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta, daughter Yolanda, 5, & Martin Luther III, 3, sitting together as they play piano in their livingroom, Atlanta, Georgia, 1960. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)
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1958
(Original Caption) 10/3/1958-New York, NY: Martin Luther King (1929-1968), Leaving Harlem Hospital with his Wife Coretta.
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1958
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is comforted by his wife in Harlem Hospital after he was stabbed in the chest while at a book signing in Harlem, New York on September 20, 1958.
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1964
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. hugs his wife Coretta during a news conference following the announcement that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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1962
American Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) and his wife, American author, activist, and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King (1927 – 2006) at his office in Atlanta, Georgia, July 1962. (Photo by TPLP/Getty Images)
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1960
After Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was freed from jail (under a $2000 appeal bond) he was greeted by his wife Coretta and children, Martin and Yolanda, at the airport in Chamblee, Georgia, October 27, 1960
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1956
MONTGOMERY, AL – MAY 1956: Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. relaxes at home with his wife Coretta and first child Yolanda in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
MONTGOMERY, AL – MARCH 25: Coretta Scott King and husband civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on platform at end of 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights March. On March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty Images)
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1962
American Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) poses for a family portrait with his daughter, 7-year-old Yolanda Denise King (1955 – 2007), son, 18 months Dexter Scott King, wife American author, activist, and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King (1927 – 2006) and son, 4-year-old Martin Luther King III at their home in Atlanta, Georgia, July 1962. (Photo by TPLP/Getty Images)
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1965
Coretta Scott King kisses her husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., in Montgomery, Alabama at the culmination of the Selma to Montgomery March, March 25th 1965. (Photo by Ben Martin/Getty Images)
