SEVEN THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Monday, January 15, 2024
The United States commemorates the third Monday of January as the birthday of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
King was respected and widely known for his fight for racial equality, support for nonviolent social change, and ability to speak memorable words to the public.
Although public memory has perpetuated the image of this monarch, the late civil rights leader was a man of many positions and actions, as well as sometimes having disabilities.
One has to consider some lesser-known facts about King's life and perspective while watching MLK Day this year.
- Prime Minister against the Vietnam War
One year before he was assassinated, King addressed "Beyond Vietnam" at a New York City Riverside Church in 1967.
Because King believed that the domestic improvement program provided resources for the war in Vietnam, he took exception to the war.
King stated, "We took young black men who had been crippled by our society and sent them eight thousand miles to guarantee freedom in Southeast Asia that they did not find in southwest Georgia and East Harlem."
- King disagrees with homosexuality.
During the 1950s, King worked as an advice columnist for the African-American magazine Ebony.
In 1958, an unnamed teenager wrote King a letter in which he stated that he had difficulty with sexual ideas.
I'm a boy, but I feel about boys the way I should feel about girls. I didn't want my parents to know what I was doing. What should I do? Ask the young man.
King responded to the question by calling homosexuality a" problem" and encouraging young men to seek counseling.
The problem you are facing is by no means an unusual one; however, it does require special attention. According to King, culture rather than genetic predisposition may be the cause of your feelings for boys.
Therefore, it is necessary to solve this problem by returning to some of the experiences and circumstances that led to the habit. I suggest you see a good psychiatrist who can help you put on your conscience all the experiences and circumstances that led to the habit.
- King Has A Negative View Of Malcolm X
Because they had a common enemy in White Supremacy, King and Malcolm X were often portrayed together.
However, in terms of tactics and ethics, the two well-known and influential activists disagree.
In Chapter 25 of his autobiography, King stated that he had met Malcolm X once in Washington but found that members of the Nation of Islam disagreed.
King wrote, "I completely disagree with many of his political and philosophical views—to the extent that I understand his current position."
Malcolm has done himself and all of us a disservice, I think. In the black ghettos, fiery and incendiary speeches calling on African Americans to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as he had done, produced only grief.
The feeling of disapproval may have been mutual given that Malcolm X called the famous march on Washington for jobs and freedom a "joke on Washington" and referred to King as "Reverend Dr. Chicken-wing."
- King plagiarized his dissertation as a doctoral
As a man known for his convincing rhetoric and impressive quotes, as well as an academic with years of experience under his belt, it may come as a surprise that King has ever engaged in plagiarism.
Boston University announced in October 1991 that King plagiarized part of his doctoral dissertation, which he had made 36 years earlier.
The New York Times wrote, "The Committee said that "no thought should be given to revoking Dr. King," regardless of the findings, an action that the panel found would be of no use."
However, the committee suggested that a certified copy of Dr. King be kept in the university library along with a letter stating his findings.
Meanwhile, Martin Luther King Jr. discussed plagiarism in Volume II of the papers of Martin Luther King Jr., "Rediscovering Precious Values, July 1951–November 1955." Although the extent of King's plagiarism suggests that he at least disregarded academic standards, direct evidence does not exist. problem, "the project states.
"King's actions during his early adulthood suggest that he increasingly saw himself as a preacher earning theological scholarship rather than as an academic earning such scholarship."
- King Opposes Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign
Dr. King did not necessarily spare criticism from Republicans, although he often faced the ire of Southern sheriffs who belonged to the Democratic Party.
King called on blacks and whites to vote against him when limited-government supporter Barry Goldwater became the Republican presidential nominee in 1964.
King wrote in his autobiography, "Senator Goldwater represented a morally indefensible and socially suicidal philosophy regarding pressing civil rights issues."
Although Mr. Goldwater was not racist, he developed a philosophy that helped and satisfied racists. His candidacy and philosophy will serve as an umbrella on which extremists of various stripes will lean.
King responded to these complaints globally. He again took the time to criticize Goldwater during his trip to the Netherlands in August 1964.
King said, "This is the first time a major political party has nominated a man with views that are completely out of line with the mainstream of American thought and views that are more in line with the 18th century than the 20th century."
- King supports the abolition of prayer in faculty-led public schools.
King, a religious activist, strongly believed that the church should participate in social change movements.
Although he heads the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, that doesn't mean he doesn't have limits on the number of countries and churches that can mingle.
King spoke in an interview with Playboy in 1965 about the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to remove faculty-led prayer from public schools.
According to many, it seeks to hinder prayer and trust in God. In a pluralistic society like ours, who decides what prayers to say and by whom? King stated that the state certainly had no such right legally, constitutionally, or in any other way.
I strongly oppose any attempt to overturn the decision. I believe that their motivation is not far from the desire to humiliate the Supreme Court.
- Michael was once King.
What a different history that is! There is evidence to suggest that King's father, Martin Luther King Sr., was actually Michael Luther King.
In addition, there is a high probability that people who cherish the names of Michael Luther King Sr. and Michael Luther King Jr. engage in official records.
Snopes.com is investigating King Sr.'s statement., which comes from a 1957 speech:
King Sr. said, "I have been known as Michael Luther King or "Mike" until I was twenty-two years old... when one day my father, James Albert King, told me, "You are also not named Mike or Michael. Your name is Martin Luther King, Jr.Your mom just called you Mike."
"I proudly accept Martin Luther King as my real name, and when M. L. was born, I proudly named him Martin Luther King Jr., but only in 1934, when I was looking for my first passport, did I learn that Dr. Johnson, who gave birth to M. L., listed him in city records as Michael Luther King Jr. because he thought it was my real name."
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