Today I want to pass along a quote from Coretta Scott King, wife of slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Mrs. King was speaking at Lambda Legal’s 25th Anniversary Luncheon in 1998:
As Martin once said, ‘We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny… an inescapable network of mutuality… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.’
Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the civil rights movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.
And I am utterly convinced that King would have firm words for those within the African-American community that do not understand their role, duty, and responsibility to fight today for others in securing civil rights. King would not be one of those who would pull the ladder up until everyone had made it to the ‘promised land’ of full civil rights.
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