# Let's pit Martin Luther King! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 16, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016 "2015-01-16T20:05:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 50
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016/50 "2015-01-17T00:40:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Actually, almost everyone knew “something”, if not all the specifics. But it was generally not shown in pictures. > > Check out this [link.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=687468) > [@How many people knew FDR could not walk?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-knew-fdr-could-not-walk/655075/12): > > The ‘beating polio’ theme was part of his 1932 campaign. There was a widely seen newsreel shot that purported to show him walking out of a clinic. In actuality he was supported by others and only took a single step with his braces on. His campaign was carefully crafted to show him as a vital man. He was often portrayed wearing a hat with the front brim folded up as if he was facing into the wind, and the cigarette holder clenched in his teeth was an obvious phallic symbol. > [@How many people knew FDR could not walk?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-knew-fdr-could-not-walk/655075/14): > > Don’t read too much modern-day into these things. Wearing your brim up was more of a 19teens thing than a “wind” thing. Cigarette holders stood for the patrician set, not penises (or he’d have smoked a long, fat cigar). Paging Winston Churchill! 😃 --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-pit-martin-luther-king/710016)._