Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King Congressional Gold Medal

This medal honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King for their many contributions to the Nation on behalf of the civil rights movement. King delivered his “I have a dream” address in front of the Lincoln Memorial more than 50 years earlier on August 23, 1963.

The medal recognizes:

• The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King as the first family of the civil rights movement, who had distinguished records of public service to the American people and the international community
• Dr. King’s doctrine of nonviolent civil disobedience to combat segregation, discrimination and racial injustice
• His August 23, 1963, march on Washington that featured his most famous address, the “I have a dream” speech
• His assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee
• Coretta Scott King’s entrance into the civil rights movement in 1955 during the Montgomery bus boycott and the important role she played as a leader of the American civil rights movement
• Her devotion to developing and building the Atlanta-based Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change after her husband’s assassination
• Her role in the campaign to establish Dr. King’s birthday as a national holiday

The bronze medal pictured is a duplicate of the Congressional Gold Medal.