Coretta Scott King first came to Honolulu in June 1987 in an effort to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a state holiday.

Hawai'i was then one of seven states that had not declared it a state holiday, following the establishment of the federal holiday in 1983.

Hawai'i, among the last three states to mark the holiday in honor of the fallen civil rights leader, held its first Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1989.

Faye Kennedy, first vice president of the Hawai'i branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she and others began to fight for the holiday in 1986. Mrs. King's visit included a talk to 1,000 people at Central Union Church and helped push the issue over the top, Kennedy said.

One of the arguments against a King holiday was that Hawai'i already had many paid holidays. As a solution, lawmakers got rid of the Discoverer's Day holiday that was commemorated the second Monday of each October.

"I'm certain her appearance was one of the wonderful things that happened that helped get the holiday," Kennedy said.

A year later, King returned to the state Capitol to witness then-Gov. John Waihee signing the holiday into law.

In her only meeting with King, Kennedy recalled that she was "gracious and very modest ... she spoke softly and was just an unpretentious person who appeared to be quite humble."

Kennedy said one of the keys to getting the holiday approved was convincing Hawai'i lawmakers and the public that Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement he led had become more than fighting for the rights of black Americans.

"It's about all of us, especially the marginalized groups, helping each other," Kennedy said.

Others in Hawai'i's civil rights community yesterday echoed that sentiment.

At the time of his death in April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was beginning to shift his focus beyond the fight for black rights and toward a more universal call to help the oppressed. With her charismatic husband gone, Coretta Scott King had to carry on that fight.

Miles Jackson, a historian and librarian of black American history, said that too often, people mistake the Kings with fighting just for black civil rights.

"It was to liberate a lot of people," said Jackson, who lived in Atlanta during the 1960s and was involved in the movement. "Particularly here in the Islands, they think that Martin Luther King Day is just for African Americans. That's not true. It is a time for people to celebrate Martin Luther King regardless of their race, religion (or) creed."

Alphonso Braggs, president of the NAACP's Hawai'i branch, recalled how King led a march in Memphis just days after her husband's assassination.

"She wasn't just about civil rights," Braggs said. "Like her husband, she also was concerned about human rights, human dignities, equalities and justices for all. Most recently, she had been a tireless advocate for the AIDS movement and bringing awareness to that."

Eduardo Hernandez, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Honolulu, said the fight against discrimination continues. He noted that King said in a speech in 2000 that freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation "is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender or ethnic discrimination.

Patricia Anthony, president of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition, was born in Hawai'i and divided her time between here and North Carolina, but she spent her childhood summers in Atlanta with her uncle, a neighbor of the Kings.

Playing with the King children, Anthony said, she got to know Coretta Scott King as "a quiet, educated Southern lady."