Your view of Martin Luther King, Jr.?

[Queen of Swords]

It’s that “Martin Luther King” time of year again in the U.S., given that Monday, January 16 is designated as a federal holiday in his name. No other individual in American history currently enjoys such a distinction.

King was the most visible and influential civil rights leader in the US; most US cities and towns bear at least one “Martin Luther King Boulevard”.

However, many people aren’t aware if the fact that he plagiarized a sizable portion of his doctoral thesis; there are also authorship questions about his other works as well as his speeches. In 1991, Boston University (where King got a Ph.D. in Theology), after investigating the issue of King’s doctoral thesis plagiarism, concluded that he did in fact plagiarize a substantial portion of his thesis from other sources, but choose not to revoke his degree.

The King Papers Project at Stanford University, clearly pro-King, as well as other pro-King scholars and civil rights historians, also acknowledge King’s extensive plagiarism, spanning his entire academic career.


So, what is your view of Martin Luther King, Jr.? Was he a great civil rights leader, or was he, as Jacqueline Kennedy stated, "phony” and "tricky" and “a terrible man”? Both? Neither?

Your thoughts?

[Grumpy Cat]

Can't you just enjoy sleeping in on Jan 16th?

I'd kill for a holiday in depressing January.

[Aces High]

Jacqueline Kennedy stated, "phony” and "tricky" and “a terrible man”?

Are you sure she wasnt talking about her husband when she said that...?

[Siberyak]

As soon as White Americans starting listening to his Bullshit then that was the beginning of the end for them.

[Joe McCarthy]

What's particularly galling is that he's the only American with a national holiday. One can even like the guy and see that as outrageous. Not Washington, not Jefferson, not Lincoln - Michael King!

Which brings us to the question of his name: it wasn't Martin Luther King.

[Logan]

I never met anyone over here that paid any mind to the day.

I think they ought better to have selected someone besides him.

[Queen of Swords]

What's particularly galling is that he's the only American with a national holiday. One can even like the guy and see that as outrageous. Not Washington, not Jefferson, not Lincoln - Michael King!

Which brings us to the question of his name: it wasn't Martin Luther King.

Yes, precisely, on both points. He clearly made a major impact on civil rights, but aren't there other Americans who were just as worthy of a national holiday? No President even has his own federal holiday. Not to mention that he was given a pass on the plagiarism issue, given that his degree was never revoked.

He was born "Michael", not Martin Luther.

[Queen of Swords]

Are you sure she wasnt talking about her husband when she said that...?

Lol. Quite sure she was referencing MLK, but certainly "phony" and "tricky" can be applied to most politicians as well.

[Hess]

something of note-

On Jan. 6, 1964, FBI men installed microphones in King's Washington, D.C., hotel room and turned on the tape recorder. According to officials who heard the tapes, King that night betrayed his wife, Coretta--not for the first or the last time--shouting, amid his most private activities, "I'm fucking for God!" and "I'm not a Negro tonight!" Later that year, agents anonymously shipped King "a 'highlight' recording of bugged sex groans and party jokes" along with a letter warning him: "You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation." They called it the "suicide package."

[Queen of Swords]

As soon as White Americans starting listening to his Bullshit then that was the beginning of the end for them.

In many ways, you're very right. The Immigration and Nationality Act, which Johnson signed in 1965 was an outgrowth of the civil rights movement, and is one of the root causes for the massive immigration problem we have today.