From Washington Post
By Eugene Robinson

The passing of Coretta Scott King, the formidable “first lady” of the civil rights movement, makes it impossible to ignore a difficult fact: The era in which the phrase “black leadership” had real meaning is long gone.

Mrs. King wore the mantle of first lady with great steadfastness and grace for nearly four decades. She died yesterday at 78, never having fully recovered from the stroke she suffered last year, and she will be eulogized throughout the land with great and solemn dignity. She deserves those honors. History compelled her to live a legacy, not a life, and at times the obligation must have been confining to the point of suffocation.

In creating that legacy for his widow, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. also shaped the relatively brief historical moment in which it was possible to talk of a black leadership group that spoke with one voice for black America. For me, and for many others, it has been hard to let that golden moment slip away.

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