This year's African American Heritage Month Lecture, held at The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture & History on Monday, focused on the life of human rights advocate Coretta Scott King.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, an author, scholar and professor, gave the lecture. Guy-Sheftall is a women's studies professor at Spelman College and the founding director of the college's Women’s Research and Resource Center. She also helped establish the first women’s studies major at a historically Black college.
The Daily Tar Heel reported in January that the lecture had faced confusion over who would be coordinating the event about a month before it was set to occur. History professor William Sturkey, who has served for several years on the lecture's planning committee, said planning for the event usually begins at the start of fall semester.
The lecture detailed the life and pursuits of Coretta Scott King and her vision of "the Beloved Community", the idea of a society based in justice, equality and love. King was the wife of the late Martin Luther King Jr., but she was adamant that she was not defined by this role, Guy-Sheftall said.
“I had no problem being the wife of Martin, but I was never just a wife,” Guy-Sheftall read, quoting King.
Guy-Sheftall said King played an active role in the Civil Rights Movement while her husband was alive and continued to fight for equality long after he was gone.
“Her vision of the beloved community was bolder and more revolutionary than her husband Martin’s,” she said.
King was not only a civil rights activist — she raised her voice in protest for every cause she believed in, Guy-Sheftall said. She fought for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans as early as the 1980s, speaking out for LGBTQ+ rights at the first dinner of The Human Rights Campaign.
“Unlike many civil rights leaders of her day, she saw the similarities between the struggle for civil rights and the struggle for gay and lesbian rights,” Guy-Sheftall said.
