I used to oppose the MLK holiday until the FBI files were openly reviewed- yeah, the man had problems in marital fidelity & unsavory political allies, but still, he did what few people could have done- champion very necessary political reforms with a minimum of violence. For that, I will give him due honor. If he had lived on, I have no idea how he would have shifted politically, to the left or the right, so I have no idea how I would feel about a living Dr. King, but I think in the final tally, his good marks for his public impact outweighed the bad of his personal failings.
I don’t know of his stances on anything else but race relations, but if he was big time touting the sanctitiy of marriage, or fidelity or whatever, then yes, he is a hypocrite on that subject, but that has nothing to do with his work on race relations- same as Bill Clintons sexual history has nothing to do with his ability to suceesfully run the country, but his detractors need to find something bad to say about him, and this is all they got.
The enormous shame isn’t that we whitewash (heh) King’s reputation, but that we don’t have anyone else – man or woman, black, white, or other – who can be compared to him today.
Who has taken up the mantle of nonviolent, eloquent, far-sighted advocacy for all who desperately need it?
That’s what we honor when we honor King.
Sailboat
Dr. King never campaigned against the sins he practiced, nor condemned them in others. This sets him apart somewhat from a fair number of religious leaders currently enjoying public vilification for human failings. Dr. King exhorted those who listened to him to eschew racism, and respect the rights of all men. I know of no specific events in his life that showed that stand to be hypocritical.
Tris
“As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.” ~ Samuel Johnson, 1783 ~
The main victims of the deification of King are other members of the civil rights movement who get forgotten. King was important, but he and Rosa Parks are hardly the only important figures.
Is MLK deified. I think so, I mean is there anybody else who has their own holiday? Columbus is the only other, another historical figure who has had people try and remove some of the glossy veneer of his accomplishments. I have no problem with MLK holiday or the man being recognized for a tremendous force for change in this country. I also think he has, as Apos has mentioned, become so large that others have found it difficult to follow in his legacy with effect.
This is just about how I see it, too. For those who are historically-minded, one may find out plenty about the clay feet of many national heroes (Jefferson, FDR, JFK and MLK come to mind). For those who take a more cursory or superficial approach to history, though, these heroes are remembered mostly for the good they did, without the need to wallow in their failings.
For citizen of a secular country, King gets his share of aggrandized treatment. Especially here in Atlanta.
Actual conversation I had as a teenager at the King Memorial:
So that’s the King crypt?
That’s DOCTOR King’s crypt, yes.
That’s King’s birth home up the street there?
Yep. DOCTOR King was born there.
Y’know… I notice you always correct me when I say “King” by saying Doctor King. He wasn’t a doctor when he was born. Heck, he wasn’t even Martin when he was born. So what’s wrong with saying the King birth home?
In Atlanta, we say DOCTOR King.
I think what set me off in the OP was when I heard him mentioned as “Saint” Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was called Martin Luther the King in the movie Coming to America.
Which was a comedy.
King isn’t “Deified” any more than Washington, Jefferson or Lincoln. And he isn’t yet on any money, though he should be.
I know. I was just throwing that out there for fun’s sake.
I think most celebrated historical figures, Doctor King included, are celebrated as the human face of a cause, movement or time. THe same is true of Columbus (exploration and creation of global movement), Washington (Revolutionary War), Jefferson (Creation of a Constitutional Democracy), Harriet Tubman (Pre-Civil War Abolition movement), Lincoln (End of Slavery), etc… As such, these historical figures are a shorthand for celebrating something that many people had a hand in. Because of that, it really doesn’t matter to the celebration if the actual person was flawed - the important thing is what the figure stands for.
Deified is much too strong a word, and incorrect. We have not made a god of him, nor even a saint. (If he had been Catholic, he might have been sainted by now.) We lionize him, and I believe he deserved that. We honor him, lest we forget what he inspired us to accomplish. Deify? No, nobody prays to him, and nobody expects him to bring miracles to those who ask for help. He was a great man, but just a man.
When I said “what he inspired us to accomplish,” I didn’t mean to claim I was an activist in the civil rights movement; I wasn’t. I meant that he showed me how important racial equality is. He did that for millions of Americans. We went from “That’s the way it is,” to “We must change this.”