Historic home where MLK was married now forgotten
MARION, Ala. — Bullet holes pock a rusted mailbox outside the vacant home where Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott were married in 1953. Part of the old wooden structure has collapsed.
Most anyplace connected to the best-known voice of the civil rights movement is a magnet for tourists, particularly around the January holiday honoring King’s birthday and in February during Black History Month. His birthplace in Atlanta is a national historic park; the parsonage where he and his wife lived in Montgomery is part of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.
Yet the spot where the Kings spent one of the most important days of their lives — the childhood home of Coretta Scott King, who went on to found the King Center in Atlanta following her husband’s assassination in 1968 — sits all but unknown in rural Perry County, one of Alabama’s poorest places.
Even some locals remain largely unaware of its historical importance.
“I don’t really know anything about the house,” said Kay Beckett, president of the Perry County Historical and Preservation Society.
An expert said the Scott home is one of many important Black historical sites that have been forgotten across the nation.
“It’s actually more typical than you’d imagine. We pass by many Black heritage sites every day, standing in plain sight seemingly without history or meaning. Yet, these overlooked places hold exceptional cultural and educational value,” said Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
There’s no single reason why the place is a forgotten relic, officials say. One problem is that it’s far off the beaten path for travelers, nowhere near a major highway and about 75 miles from Birmingham to the northeast or Montgomery to the east.
Also, it’s privately owned. Tax records show the property is owned by Bernice King, the couple’s youngest daughter, and not much has ever been done with it. Bernice King didn’t respond to email messages about the home that were sent to aides at The King Center, where she works as chief executive.
“It is standing and they have a caretaker who cuts the grass,” said Albert Turner Jr., a county commissioner whose father Albert Turner led civil rights activities in the region and advised King.
Coretta Scott, a Marion native, and King, who grew up in Atlanta, wed in the front yard of the home on June 18, 1953, with King’s father performing the ceremony.
Scott’s parents — Obie and Bernice Scott, who died in the 1990s — remained at the white house with a broad front porch while the young couple lived in Boston and then Montgomery before settling in Atlanta.
The Kings are not forgotten in Perry County. The home is located on Coretta Scott King Memorial Highway.