Coretta Scott King Travels To South Africa

During the 1980s, Scott King reaffirmed her long-standing opposition to apartheid, participating in a series of sit-in protests in Washington, D.C. that prompted nationwide demonstrations against South African racial policies.

In 1986, she traveled to South Africa and met with Winnie Mandela, while Mandela's husband Nelson Mandela was still a political prisoner on Robben Island. She declined invitations from Pik Botha and moderate Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Upon her return to the United States, she urged Reagan to approve economic sanctions against South Africa.

In the 1970s, she created several interracial coalitions that sought to establish economic and employment opportunities throughout the country. In 1983 she founded the Coalition of Conscience to celebrate the 20th anniversary march on Washington, at the time, the largest protest Washington, D.C., had ever seen. Two years later, also in Washington, Mrs. King and three of her children were arrested during an anti-apartheid protest.