On January 15th, let us remember the life and work of Dr Martin Luther

[Catchme]

Considering Dr Kings words really were decades ahead of his tiime and apply most directly to today's world, and the state of things we would all do well to rember his words and try to save our childrens and granchildrens world for them. A world that we have allowed to be destroyed either actively through support of the Military Industrial Complex or passively through apathy.

This January 15th, we once again commemorate the life and work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Normally, the commemoration focuses on Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech of 1963.

While the words of this speech, words burned into the memory of virtually every American, are transcendent, they do not tell us the full story of the man and his legacy.

On April 4, 1967, one year to the day before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a major and now largely forgotten speech.

In this speech, titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence”, Dr. King became the first mainstream civil rights leader to oppose the U.S. war against Vietnam.

Dr. King spoke of the misplaced priorities of the U.S. government and our country’s economic leadership:

“…When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered…”

Dr. King predicted the moral crisis that the worship of armed intervention would lead us to:

“…A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death…”

And Dr. King called for a positive alternative to the limited and heartless world view of our nation’s leaders...let us take up the work again, joining with people everywhere who seek an end to war, repression, hatred and greed, and build a world of justice, hope, freedom and equality for all. It will take years, perhaps decades, but it must be done.

Dr King died for “the Dream”. It’s up to us to live it.

Full text of speech at http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html

[August1991]

The news has been out since the late 1980s that Martin Luther King Jr., the American Civil Rights icon, was a serial plagiarist. Not only did he plagiarize at least half of his doctoral thesis; many of his speeches, including the most famous, were plagiarized too. Nor was this a recent development in his career - he had been plagiarizing material since he was a teenager.

This is a fascinating story. There is the delicious irony that Luther King Jr. has been universally feted and embalmed with saintly oils. More interesting still, the story has been suppressed. Most Americans have not heard about the plagiarism and perhaps never will. The editors of his papers did their utmost to prevent the story from spreading. Boston University delayed, denied and obfuscated as long as possible -- and then some.

Some Web Site

You can also go to Amazon and either order the book or read reviews.

In case you suspect these sources, try the CBC:

Journalists and docu-fiction makers are not the only professionals who've been known to stretch the truth a little ... or borrow from another person's work.

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr delivered his "I have a dream" speech to more than a hundred thousand people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. He called for civil rights for all...and demanded that 'freedom ring'. His words are regarded as some of the most inspiring of the twentieth century.

Well, it turns out that another black preacher made a similarly inspiring speech ... more than ten years earlier. Archibald Carey spoke before the 1952 Republican National Convention.

[Remiel]

I found this on a website addressing truths and fictions about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

[Carey, 1952]

We, Negro Americans, sing with all loyal Americans:

My country 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the Pilgrim's pride

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring!

That's exactly what we mean — from every mountain side, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia — let it ring not only for the minorities of the United States, but for . . . the disinherited of all the earth — may the Republican Party, under God, from every mountainside, LET FREEDOM RING!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[King, 1968]

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the Pilgrim's pride

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring!

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire!

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York!

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi!

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

The controversy surrounds those sections of the two speaches. The bulk of Dr. Kings speach (the first 80% or so, before that quote), is apparently not evidenced to be plagiarized in any manner.

[B. Max]

Dr. King predicted the moral crisis that the worship of armed intervention would lead us to:

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death…”

Actually it becomes a welfare state unable to defend its self or create the wealth it desires to confiscate.

[August1991]

The controversy surrounds those sections of the two speaches. The bulk of Dr. Kings speach (the first 80% or so, before that quote), is apparently not evidenced to be plagiarized in any manner.

The controversy concerns more than one speech.

Be that as it may, King was an important figure in US politics in the 1960s and he was instrumental in changing how American society treated black people.

[jbg]

You can also go to Amazon and either order the book or read reviews.

In case you suspect these sources, try the CBC:

Journalists and docu-fiction makers are not the only professionals who've been known to stretch the truth a little ... or borrow from another person's work.

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr delivered his "I have a dream" speech to more than a hundred thousand people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. He called for civil rights for all...and demanded that 'freedom ring'. His words are regarded as some of the most inspiring of the twentieth century.

Well, it turns out that another black preacher made a similarly inspiring speech ... more than ten years earlier. Archibald Carey spoke before the 1952 Republican National Convention.

But August 1991 comes, eventually, to the right conclusion:

The controversy surrounds those sections of the two speaches. The bulk of Dr. Kings speach (the first 80% or so, before that quote), is apparently not evidenced to be plagiarized in any manner.

The controversy concerns more than one speech.

Be that as it may, King was an important figure in US politics in the 1960s and he was instrumental in changing how American society treated black people.

OK. Here comes my liberal side. Assume it's true that MLK was primarily a plagarist. One question: What good would it have done if Archibald Carey's very inspiring words never reached the world. MLK used those words as a peaceful revolutionary of the best kind. My argument is that white people benefitted from King because now society gets the best contribution from each person, without such idiotic distinction as their race.

My law office is the only "majority", i.e. white firm in my county with a minority (black female) partner. She spends about 7/8's of her time on "white" cases. She works on the part of the practice she's good at, passes the baton to me or any of the other attorneys for other stuff. And I pass my baton to her quite frequently.

[Guthrie]

These pathetic attacks against Martin Luther King speak volumes about the attackers. Naturally, they cannot honestly detract from his historical significance, his true heroism and brilliance.

To paraphrase Kris Kristoferson

If you don't like MLK - you can kiss my ass

moreover, you are likely a pathetic excuse for a human being

[geoffrey]

Academic dishonesty is a major problem when your are proclaimed to be a brilliant person.

[jbg]

Academic dishonesty is a major problem when your are proclaimed to be a brilliant person.

I guess my answer to you got lost in the shouting and name calling:

OK. Here comes my liberal side. Assume it's true that MLK was primarily a plagarist. One question: What good would it have done if Archibald Carey's very inspiring words never reached the world. MLK used those words as a peaceful revolutionary of the best kind. My argument is that white people benefitted from King because now society gets the best contribution from each person, without such idiotic distinction as their race.

[geoffrey]

It wouldn't have hurt him to reference the quotation.