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A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 28 april 2023
Monument to Coretta Scott King dedicated in Atlanta

By KATE BRUMBACK the domed canopy is a
Associated Press bronze cast sculpture of mi-
ATLANTA (AP) — A new crophones that includes a
monument and garden live microphone that Wool-
celebrating and honoring falk said is meant to allow
the legacy of civil rights ac- visitors “to speak their own
tivist Coretta Scott King was words and commitments
dedicated on Thursday, to civil rights and nonvio-
which would have been lence.” The floor is a tiled
her 96th birthday. mosaic of the rose that
The Coretta Scott King bears King’s name.
Peace and Meditation The garden features a
Garden and monument sits stone-paved area flanked
on the grounds of The King by benches and flower
Center in Atlanta, which beds leading up to the
she founded in 1968 to monument. It is near the
memorialize the life, work, eternal flame that burns
legacy and commitment next to the pool that sur-
to nonviolence of her hus- rounds the crypt that holds
band, slain civil rights lead- the Kings’ bodies.
er the Rev. Martin Luther The monument was com-
King Jr. missioned by Hulu as part
“The magnitude of her The Rev. Bernice King, center, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, of its “Made By Her: Monu-
contributions to humanity granddaughter of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Yolanda Renee King, right, and artist Saya Woolfalk, ments” project, which aims
left, attend during the dedication of the Coretta Scott King Peace and Meditation Garden and
are yet to be known,” the monument on Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Atlanta. to chip away at the gen-
Rev. Bernice King, CEO of Associated Press der disparities in public art.
The King Center, said of her Similar monuments to jour-
mother. “Today’s dedica- nice King and her niece rights advocate Xernona “It’s an immersive environ- nalist and conservationist
tion of this monument is but Yolanda Renee King — the Clayton, as well as other ment,” Woolfalk said of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas
a beginning. There’s much 14-year-old daughter of King family members and work she created. “It’s not and Supreme Court Justice
more to come, and when Martin Luther King III — to- civic leaders. a representational sculp- Ruth Bader Ginsburg have
her legacy is fully revealed, gether untied a ribbon on The monument was creat- ture. It’s intended to make been commissioned in Mi-
we will know that because the gate of the garden and ed by artist Saya Woolfalk, you feel like you’re in the ami and Los Angeles, re-
of her, because of Mom, cut another ribbon on the who said the desire of the spirit of Mrs. King. So you spectively.
because of Coretta Scott monument. King family to have it on walk into the space, and The monuments all include
King, the dream lives and Also on hand for the cer- the “sacred ground” of The you feel her spirit.” the canopy structure to link
the legacy continues.” emony was MLK lieutenant King Center, rather than a The monument features a them as part of “a kind of
After a program featuring and former Atlanta mayor site somewhere else in the circular “chapel dome” sisterhood of sacred sites,”
speeches, a poem and and United Nations ambas- city as originally planned, made of steel that is open said Woolfalk, who de-
musical performances, Ber- sador Andrew Young, civil was meaningful to her. on the sides. Underneath signed all three.q

Carolyn Bryant Donham, at center of Emmett Till

death, dies

cused Black teenager Em- ham — then 21 and named — one of Till’s cousins — Historian and author Timo-
mett Till of whistling at her Carolyn Bryant — accused was 7 years old and living thy Tyson of Durham, North
— causing his 1955 lynching him of making improper in the Chicago home with Carolina, who said he ob-
in Mississippi, which galva- advances on her at a gro- Till’s mother and family. tained a copy from Don-
nized a generation of ac- cery store where she was Gordon told The Associat- ham while interviewing her
tivists to rise up in the Civil working in the small com- ed Press on Thursday that in 2008, provided a copy to
Rights Movement — has munity of Money. The Rev. in the days leading up to the AP.
died at 88. Wheeler Parker, a cousin when his body was found, Tyson had placed the man-
This 1955 file photo shows Carolyn Bryant Donham of Till who was there, has the home was full of fear, uscript in an archive at the
Carolyn Bryant. Carolyn died in hospice care Tues- said 14-year-old Till whistled because people knew University of North Carolina
Bryant Donham, the white day night in Louisiana, a at the woman, an act that there was a strong likeli- with the agreement that it
woman who accused Black coroner’s report shows. flew in the face of Missis- hood he had been killed. not be made public for de-
teenager Emmett Till of Till’s kidnapping and brutal sippi’s racist social codes of Gordon said she had mixed cades, though he said he
making improper advances
before he was lynched in murder captured interna- the era. emotions about Donham’s gave it to the FBI during an
Mississippi in 1955 has died tional attention when his Evidence indicates a wom- death. In an unpublished investigation the agency
Tuesday night, April 25, in mother, Mamie Till Mobley, an identified Till to Don- memoir obtained by The concluded in 2021. He said
hospice care in Louisiana, insisted on an open-casket ham’s then-husband Roy Associated Press in 2022, he decided to make it pub-
according to a death report funeral in their hometown Bryant and his half-brother Donham said she was un- lic after some of Till’s rela-
filed Thursday, April 27, 2023, of Chicago after his brutal- J.W. Milam, who killed the aware of what would hap- tives and other people do-
in Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s
Office in Louisiana. ized body was pulled from teenager. An all-white jury pen to Till. ing research at the Leflore
Associated Press a river in Mississippi. Jet acquitted the two white The contents of the 99- County, Mississippi, court-
magazine published pho- men in the killing, but the page manuscript, titled house in June 2022 found
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS tos. men later confessed in an “I am More Than A Wolf an arrest warrant on kid-
Associated Press In August 1955, Till had trav- interview with Look maga- Whistle,” were first reported napping charges that was
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The eled from Chicago to visit zine. When Till disappeared by the Mississippi Center issued for “Mrs. Roy Bryant”
white woman who ac- relatives in Mississippi. Don- in Mississippi, Ollie Gordon for Investigative Reporting. in 1955 but never served.q