Coretta Scott King became a forceful public figure and important leader in the Civil Rights movement in her own right. She made numerous contributions to the struggle for social justice and human rights throughout her life. Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. married on June 18, 1953. The following year they moved to Montgomery, Alabama where Martin Luther King Jr. began his work as a minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, Coretta King was thrust into the national spotlight. She calmed local and national racial tensions by exuding quiet dignity and courage at his public funeral in Atlanta. Then just four days after his death, Coretta Scott King led a march of fifty thousand people through the streets of Memphis.