April 5, 2009

Martin Luther King, Jr. we hardly knew ye.

Martin Luther King, Jr was shot to death on April 4th, 1968 while standing on the balcony of his hotel room. (Lorraine Motel, Room 306). James Earl Ray was subsequently arrested and convicted of King's murder despite the fact that the rifle recovered by the police was subjected to two different ballistics tests and both determined that the rifle recovered was not the rifle used in the assassination. Ray also recanted his confession and it has now been generally accepted that someone else actually killed King. (see zen haitian's post on this: http://open.salon.com/blog/chantal_laurent/2009/04/07/soledad_sister_finds_us_govt_did_not_conspire_to_kill_king )

Now, King's contribution to the civil rights movement should be well known. He helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was involved with the Montgomery Bus boycott, the Birmingham campaign to promote civil rights, participated in numerous marches (Selma, etc), gave several significant speeches, (the most notable was his 1963 "I have a Dream" speech) and in 1964 received the Nobel Prize for his efforts at ending racial discrimination.

A not too shabby list of accomplishments. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that without the efforts and legacy of MLK, Jr. that Obama would not have been elected.

The personal side of Martin Luther King, Jr. is worth looking at as well. There are two main negatives in his personal life; his plagiarism and his adultery.

I'm sure most of the over 40 crowd was aware that J. Edgar Hoover and his Gestapo were keeping a close eye on MLK, Jr.. I'm also sure most older people remember that the FBI recorded MLK, Jr. having a boink session with two white women while he was married. Now, adultery is a really, really bad sin, but men being men, I kind of understand (but can't condone) his desire for a little variety and can also understand that if all the ice cream you get is chocolate, you might want to try some vanilla. Unfortunately, it turns out that King was a serial adulterer.

From a January, 2009 article on King by Benjamin Ryan: "King lived a double life. During the day, he would speak to large crowds, quoting Scripture and invoking God’s will, and at night he frequently had sex with women from the audience. “King’s habits of sexual adventure had been well established by the time he was married,” says Michael Eric Dyson of Georgetown University, a King admirer. He notes that King often “told lewd jokes,” “shared women with friends,” and was “sexually reckless.” According to King biographer Taylor Branch, during a long party on the night of January 6 and 7, 1964, an FBI bugging device recorded King’s “distinctive voice ring out above others with pulsating abandon, saying, “˜I’m f***ing for God!’”

Sex with single and married women continued after King married, and on the night before his death, King had two adulterous trysts. His first rendezvous was at a woman’s house, the second in a hotel room. The source for this was his best friend and second-in-command, Ralph Abernathy, who noted that the second woman was “a member of the Kentucky legislature,” now known to be Georgia Davis Powers.

Abernathy went on to say that a third woman was also looking for King that same night, but found his bed empty. She knew his habits and was angry when they met later that morning. In response, writes Abernathy, King “lost his temper” and “knocked her across the bed… . She leapt up to fight back, and for a moment they were engaged in a full-blown fight, with [King] clearly winning.” A few hours later, King ate lunch with Abernathy and discussed the importance of nonviolence for their movement."
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Not too cool a thing for a minister to be doing. Many people will excuse this behavior and justify it in light of all the good he did. I think this is a serious character flaw though. Most people can understand someone having a weak moment, but I'd almost have to conclude that MLK, Jr. was a sex addict. Again, not a good problem for a minister to have.

His plagiarism was also a serious flaw. I dare say that everyone whose ever been in college has lifted a sentence or two and dropped it in a report now and again, but this was not the case with King.

Again, from the Ryan article: "An extensive project started at Stanford University in 1984 to publish all of King’s papers tracked down the original sources for these early papers and concluded that his academic writings are “tragically flawed by numerous instances of plagiarism.” Journalist Theodore Pappas, who has also reviewed the collection, found one paper showing “verbatim theft” in 20 of a total of 24 paragraphs. He writes:

“King’s plagiarisms are easy to detect because their style rises above the level of his pedestrian student prose. In general, if the sentences are eloquent, witty, insightful, or pithy, or contain allusions, analogies, metaphors, or similes, it is safe to assume that the section has been purloined.”King also plagiarized himself, recycling old term papers as new ones. Some of his professors complained about sloppy references, but they seem to have had no idea how extensively he was stealing material, and his habits were well established by the time he entered the PhD program at Boston University. King plagiarized one-third of his 343-page dissertation, the book-length project required to earn a PhD, leading some to say he should be stripped of his doctoral degree. "
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I may be a hardass, but I think King SHOULD be stripped of his PhD. I also can understand why some, notably liberals, can give King a pass for the adultery, but can't for the life of me figure out how liberal academia and others can give him a pass on the plagiarism. As often as you hear liberals howl about about how hard they had to study and all the crap they have to put up with to get their PhD's and then they gingerly give King a pass.

I have to chuckle every time I pass a public school that has been named after King. Both my parents were educators, back when that actually meant "to educate' as opposed "to indoctrinate", and, as someone who had to work their butt off to get a four year degree, I personally find King's plagiarism more offensive than his adultery, although the adultery is the greater sin.

I think we can certainly note and appreciate Martin Luther King's contribution to the civil rights movement, but he was a scumbag in his personal life. (and I say that as a reformed scumbag, though I wasn't as bad as he was, however, sins are sins)