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Coretta Scott King 1927–, American civil-rights leader, b. Heiberger, Ala. She is the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. After his assassination, she carried on his civil-rights work. In the late 1990s she and other family members supported the unsuccessful efforts of James Earl Ray, the convicted assassion of her husband, to win a new trial, believing that Martin Luther King was the victim of a conspiracy that may have included members of the U.S. government. In 1999 she and her family brought and won a wrongful death suit against Loyd Jowers, who claimed to have arranged King's assassination for a Mafia figure. Many experts, however, were not convinced by the evidence presented during the trial. She wrote My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. (1969).
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