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The MLK they didn’t teach us about.
Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Let’s discuss the real Dr. King.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but there’s more to Dr. King’s legacy than his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech that we were all force-fed every year in elementary school. We’ve been given a ‘Disney princess’ version of the great Reverend, and this is not by accident. MLK comes from a Black radical tradition rooted in love and extreme truth-telling about the violent and oppressive nature of the United States government. As great as he was, he was not perfect, and in line with this radical truth-telling tradition, we must also acknowledge where Dr. King failed.
King the Radical
Contrary to popular belief, Dr. King was hated by many during his lifetime. His kindness and aversion to violence did him no favors in the minds of white America back then. Many of the same people that glorify his legacy and message today were on the wrong side of history when he was still alive. This perfectly explains their hyper-focus on the most agreeable portion of his message, racial integration, and the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. As King says in his 1967 speech, ‘The Other America,’…
