# Martin Luther King's plagiarism

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/martin-luther-kings-plagiarism/225235>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [January 19, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/martin-luther-kings-plagiarism/225235 "2004-01-19T21:22:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/martin-luther-kings-plagiarism/225235/1 "2004-01-19T21:22:07Z")

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[Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html)  
(I know there was a previous thread, but a search didn’t find it.)

> [@](#):
>
> An investigation conducted by Boston University, where King got his Ph.D. in theology, determined that he had appropriated roughly a third of his doctoral thesis from a dissertation written three years earlier by another graduate student.

Does anyone know where I can find the specifics of this study?

> [@](#):
>
> King also “borrowed” portions of many other writings and speeches, including the famous “I have a dream” speech he gave at the 1963 civil rights rally in Washington.

I’d like to know more about this too. Is there somewhere I can read about direct comparisons to other works? Does anyone know about [Letter from a Birmingham Jail](http://www.almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html)? I imagine it would have been hard to plagiarize for that, what with him being in jail, but not impossible.

Happy Martin Luther King Day, everyone. 🙂

I’m a big fan of King’s, despite his misdeeds, and I just want to know more. If you’re looking for a way to recognize today, I found a copy of the [I Have a Dream speech in MP3](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm). It’s pretty powerful stuff, IMHO.

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**Author:** ![Dolphin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dolphin)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/martin-luther-kings-plagiarism/225235/2 "2004-01-23T22:08:50Z")

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Cecil’s column: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html)

I believe there is a page at [http://www.snopes.com/](http://www.snopes.com/) as well, but the site is down right now so I can’t verify that.

Both of those sites are a little more fair in their description on King.

A Google search of “martin luther king plagiarism” turned up this web page (decidedly anti-King), but has very cool side-by-sides of Archibald Carey’s 1952 I have a dream speech with King’s. [http://chem-gharbison.unl.edu/mlk/plagiarism.html](http://chem-gharbison.unl.edu/mlk/plagiarism.html)

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**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/martin-luther-kings-plagiarism/225235/3 "2004-01-25T07:34:54Z")

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Wow, thanks a lot, **Dolphin**. I was able to pull up [the Snopes page](http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/mlking.asp). It looks like Stanford University found plagiarism in a lot of his academic work. It also looks like the last tenth or so of the “I Have a Dream” speech was copied from Carey’s speech.

The only thing that’s missing is the “many other writings and speeches” that Cecil mentions. I guess he meant academic writings, but I haven’t yet found anywhere that claims any speech was borrowed other than the 1963 Washington one.