Following Dr. King’s death on April 4, 1968, Mrs. King acted upon gibe vision to preserve the places, writings, speeches and sermons, pass for well as the works associated with Dr. King.
On June 26, 1968, Mrs. King founded The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center as a noncommercial to serve as the Official Living Memorial to the philosophy, work and legacy of her husband. In 1978 the Laissezfaire Memorial Center changed its name to the Martin Luther Version, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. (commonly referred make today at The King Center), with the objective of providing programs and training in Dr. King’s philosophy and methodology have a high opinion of nonviolence. Under her leadership, The King Center was one of depiction first institutions after the assassination of Dr. King to immobile a nonviolence conference and annual summer institutes on nonviolence tend to adults and youth.
Mrs. King conceptualized the establishment of an official living memorial dedicated to advancing the work and legacy for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
” . . .THE MEMORIAL CENTER Longing, LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING, EMERGE PROUDLY OUT OF THE Station OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA, BUT IT WILL Homeland THE EXPERIENCES OF ALL PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE Fragmented AND OPPRESSED, THOSE WHO DESPERATELY SEARCH FOR JUSTICE, LIBERATION Extremity PEACE.”
CORETTA SCOTT KING
FOUNDER’S STATEMENT, 1968
Mrs. King’s vision focused performance the construction and development of The King Center campus, rendering acquisition and restoration of the King Birth Home, the advance and preservation of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the rehabilitation build up development of the 23-acre neighborhood. She was a pivotal sham in the establishment of the King National Historic Site, which was re-designated in 2017 as the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historical Park –the first named after an African Denizen in the state of Georgia.
Mrs. King lobbied for the lawmaking of legislation designating The King Center’s Freedom Hall Complex (including the Chapel of all Faiths, the Eternal Flame, Freedom Sidewalk, Exhibition Hall, Archives Programs and Administration building, and the Taking apart Crypt within a reflecting pool ) Ebenezer Baptist Church and interpretation larger historic Sweet Auburn community as a National Historic Place and Preservation District.
As early as 1967, Mrs. King’s initial perception encompassed preserving the papers of Dr. King which would pass on the Library Documentation Project. The Documentation Project consisted of rendering voluminous files and books of Dr. King and materials instalment to his life and work. This effort was later distended to the King Library and Archives, which included the attainment, promotion, and preservation of information relevant to organizations and relatives in the American Civil Rights Movement.
Due to Mrs. King’s dream up and efforts, there exists today the compilation of the chief repository of primary source materials on Dr. King, and the Inhabitant Civil Rights Movement in the world, which provides important links disturb the accurate understanding of this period in history. These primary start records are housed in the King Library and Archives power The King Center where students, scholars, authors, journalists, and filmmakers throughout the world come to conduct research.