Montgomery First Stop for Coretta Scott King Biography Tour, Release of UA Press’ Book Nears

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Bernice A. King will tour the state of Alabama to promote the biography on her mother, Coretta Scott King. The biography, “Desert Rose: The Life and Legacy of Coretta Scott King,” is written by Coretta Scott King’s sister, the late Edythe Scott Bagley, and published by The University of Alabama Press.

The first stop on the tour is Alabama State University in Montgomery. The event will be held Saturday, April 28 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m in the Great Hall of Teachers, housed in the Ralph David Abernathy Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

“Desert Rose”  will officially be released at an event April 27, which would have been Coretta Scott King’s 85^th birthday, at  The Martin Luther King Jr. Center For Nonviolent Social Change. Bagley partnered with award-winning author Joe Hilley during the editing stages to ensure the story was complete, comprehensive and compelling. Although Bagley passed away in June 2011, her dream of having her sister’s story published is being carried on through her niece, Bernice A. King.

“Desert Rose” details Coretta Scott King’s upbringing in a family of proud, land-owning African Americans with a profound devotion to the ideals of social equality and the values of education, as well as her later role as her husband’s most trusted confidant and adviser.

Coretta Scott King — noted author, human rights activist, and wife and partner of famed Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. — grew up in the rural Alabama Black Belt with her older sister, Edythe Scott Bagley.

Bagley chronicles the sisters’ early education together at the Crossroads School and later at the progressive Lincoln School in Marion. She describes Coretta Scott King’s burgeoning talent for singing and her devotion to musical studies, and the sisters’ experiences matriculating at Antioch College, an all-white college far from the rural South.

Bagley provides vivid insights into Coretta Scott King’s early passion for racial and economic justice, which lead to her involvement in the Peace Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

As Coretta Scott King’s older sister, Bagley shared in almost all of Martin Luther King’s many trials and tribulations. “Desert Rose” charts Coretta Scott King’s hesitance about her romance with Martin Luther King Jr. and the prospect of having to sacrifice her dream of a career in music to become a minister’s wife. Ultimately, Coretta Scott King chose to utilize her artistic gifts and singing voice for the Movement through the development and performance of Freedom Concerts.

This book also charts Coretta Scott King’s own commitment and dedication, in the years following Martin Luther King’s death, to the causes of international civil rights, the antiapartheid movement, and the establishment of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) in Atlanta and the national King Holiday. Coretta Scott King’s devotion to activism, motherhood and the movement led by her husband, and her courageous assumption of the legacy left in the wake of King’s untimely assassination, are wonderfully detailed in this intimate biography.

Edythe Scott Bagley, education pioneer, activist and sister of Coretta Scott King, was born and raised just north of Marion.  She enrolled at Antioch College in 1943, becoming the first African American student in the 20^th century. Bagley earned a master’s degree in English from Columbia University and an MFA in theatre arts from Boston University. She taught at Elizabeth City State College and Michigan State University, and, in 1971, she joined the faculty of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, where she was the leading force behind establishing its theatre arts major.

Bagley served as an active member of the board of directors for the Atlanta-based King Center from its founding in 1968. She also represented her sister as a speaker and made radio and television appearances on behalf of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. She passed away in June of 2011.

The University of Alabama Press, celebrating more than 65 years of fine publishing, is one of the largest and fastest-growing publishers in the South. It publishes between 70 and 75 books a year in archaeology, military history, Judaic studies, literary criticism, communication, sports, Civil Rights, religion, southern history and regional topics.