Coretta Scott was born in Heiberger, Alabama and raised on the farm of her parents Bernice McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott, in Perry County, Alabama.

She was exposed at an early age to the injustices of life in a segregated society. She walked five miles a day to attend the one-room Crossroad School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses to an all-white school closer by.

Young Coretta excelled at her studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her graduating class at Lincoln High School which at the time was private school for blacks. She graduated in 1945 and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was born in Perry County on April 27, 1927. She died on January 3, 2006. After her death, the Alabama Legislature named state County Road 29 in Perry County in her memory.

A monument of the late Coretta Scott King, the first First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement was unveiled at her home church site of Mt. Tabor AME Zion Church in North Perry County. Coretta grew up in Mount Tabor A. M. E. Zion Church where both her parents served in multiple capacities.

Her father was Chairman of the Trustee Board and succeeded his own father as the preacher’s steward. Her mother served as deaconess, stewardess, and pianist for the choir in which Coretta often sang solos.

Coretta Scott King Memorial – Hwy 14 W, No cost, Open to public year around.