Here’s what Jonathan Majors misunderstands about Coretta Scott King

Truly great men don’t treat women as props

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2024/01/13/jonathan-majors-misunderstands-coretta-scott-king/

If ever a couple embodied the saying, “Beside every great man is a great woman,” it would be Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. In his brief 39 years, the Georgia native and Morehouse College graduate with Baptist roots not only led from the pulpit, but fueled fervor for change with his sharp political philosophies and powerful oratorical skills, inspiring millions with his signature “I Have a Dream” speech at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But as King walked into history and marched for desegregation, labor conditions and the right to vote, he was accompanied by his beloved wife Coretta.

Intelligent and ambitious in her own right, the Alabama-born Coretta’s first brush with racial disparities happened when she had to attend a high school nearly 10 miles from home due to segregation. Scott would later attend Ohio’s Antioch College and study music and education as part of the campus’ Interracial Education Scholarship program. She joined the NAACP chapter there and later won a scholarship to Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. In 1951, a friend would introduce her to her future and only husband, Martin.  

In the 1989 anthology I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America, Mrs. King stated that while she knew her support of Martin and their four children was a “very important contribution” during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, her side-by-side participation during rallies, speeches and championing of womens’ groups also meant that “we were involved in a worldwide struggle. After our home in Montgomery was bombed….I realized then that I could also be killed and that it was important to make this struggle my struggle also.” 

Although Dr. King has the federal holiday and the Washington D.C. memorial, those accomplishments also honor the actions and the memory of Coretta, who tirelessly championed her husband’s causes before and after his assassination. The Civil Rights Movement that the Kings led publicized the plights of the marginalized in our society, including women, so any efforts to reduce Mrs. King to a one-dimensional “helpmate” are to be avoided.

All of that is why actor Jonathan Majors earned instant social media outrage when he characterized his girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, in a recently televised ABC interview, as holding him down — a euphemism for emotional support — “like a Coretta.”

Come again? 

On Dec. 18, Majors was convicted on two counts of domestic violence stemming from an altercation with his previous girlfriend, Hollywood movement coach Grace Jabbari. A recorded conversation played in court during his trial demonstrated his ideas of the role of women. He expected Jabbari to support him like he imagined Mrs. King or former first lady Michelle Obama did, the recording detailed, since “I’m a great man. I do great things for my culture and for the world.” 

In other words, he had to come first, and the women in his life needed to be the background to his foreground — as if the two aforementioned trailblazers were simply smiling, doting props who existed to endure every manner of indignities to help their men succeed. 

It’s hard to determine which was more offensive: Major’s attempt to deflect blame from his actions, or his cavalier comparisons and name-dropping, especially within days of the slain leader’s holiday.  

It’s a shame to see a once-meteoric actor with homegrown ties descend so quickly. Majors would graduate from Duncanville High School in 2008, long before he became Kang the Conqueror in Marvel superhero movies, or Michael B. Jordan’s frenemy in Creed III. Now, Majors’ career is on the mat. Marvel Studios dropped him. 

Perhaps it was the gall and grandiosity in comparing support of personal flaws to struggles for human rights that made Coretta the top trending topic on X this week, which led to Bernice King, daughter of Martin and Coretta, to finally respond, without mentioning Majors by name: “She was a peace advocate before she met my father and was instrumental in him speaking out against the Vietnam War. Please understand…my mama was a force.”

Hollywood can be a mystical, magical place. The right role at the right time can turn a regular citizen into an overnight celebrity, and Majors’ talents could qualify him for an eventual comeback. But before that can occur, he has to first heed the examples of the truly great men he wants to emulate — Dr. King and former President Barack Obama — by respecting women as individuals. 

Whether she’s accepting a Golden Globe award or ringing up her 20th customer at Starbucks, no woman wants her worth to be measured solely by how well she “holds her man down” — especially since we still have to work twice as hard and long to lift ourselves up.