FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a tireless activist for racial peace and non-violent social change, died Monday night. She was 78 and had been in failing health for years following a stroke.

For stories about the life of Coretta Scott King, please consider contacting David Chappell, associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas. Chappell is a prominent historian of the American South, the Civil Rights Movement and race relations in the United States.

Atlantic Monthly called his 2004 book, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow, “one of the three or four most important books on civil rights.” The New York Times Book Review said the book was “a first-rate work of history, clearly written, prodigiously researched, and forcefully argued.”

Chappell is also the author of “Inside Agitators: White Southerners in the Civil Rights Movement.” He is currently working on “Waking From the Dream: The Battle for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy.” Scheduled for publication in 2008, the book is a history of King’s lasting influence.