MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY 2012

"Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement and he is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi." (See: "Martin Luther King, Jr.").

There can be little doubt that Dr. King was a great American. But like all men, Dr. King also had his faults. Today, we tend to idolize Dr. King as an iconic figure, not as a real man, and today we subvert his vision for America and have allowed Dr. King to become a political pawn.

First, his real name is not Martin but rather it is Michael. "According to all accounts, the name on Martin Luther King's birth certificate is Michael and there is no evidence that he changed it." (See: "The Truth About Martin Luther King, Jr.").

A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree entitled "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman" in 1955. (See: New York Times "Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King").

"Although the FBI raised concerns as early as March 1956, that King was associating with card-carrying members of the Communist Party, King’s alleged ties with communism did not become the focus of FBI investigations under the existing Communist Infiltration Program (COMINFIL), designed to investigate groups and individuals subject to Communist infiltration, until 1962." (See: "Martin Luther King, Jr."). In February 1962, Hoover told Attorney General Robert Kennedy that Stanley Levison, one of King’s closest advisers, was ‘‘a secret member of the Communist Party’’ (Hoover, 14 February 1962) and in the following months, Hoover deployed agents to find subversive material on King, and Robert Kennedy authorized wiretaps on King’s home and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) offices in October 1963. id.

While it is disputed, some claim that Dr. King plagiarized his famous "I have a dream" speech from a speech given to the Republican convention in 1952 by an African-American preacher named Archibald Carey, Jr. (See: "The Truth About Martin Luther King, Jr."). This is disputed because, although the speeches are similar, they are not the same words. id.

"Judge John Lewis Smith, Jr. in 1977 ordered that all known copies of the recorded audiotapes and written transcripts resulting from the FBI's electronic surveillance of King between 1963 and 1968 to be held in the National Archives and sealed from public access until 2027." (See: "Martin Luther King, Jr.").

On "November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. Observed for the first time on January 20, 1986, it is called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day". id.  Not until 2000 did all of the states recognize Dr. King's holiday. id. Following President George H. W. Bush's 1992 proclamation, the holiday is observed on the third Monday of January each year instead of Dr. King's actual birthday. id. No doubt, the third Monday in January was made the holiday  in order to give government employees a day off.

Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, the best friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., cast a smudge upon Dr. King's reputation as a path breaking civil rights leader and was injured amid the furor over his autobiographical account of King's adultery. (See: L.A. Times "Ralph Abernathy, Aide to Dr. King, Dies : Civil rights: He had been called one of 'the Movement's Twins.' But his memoir of his friend's personal life had haunted his last months").

In Jacqueline Kennedy's book, the widow of President John F. Kennedy, wrote that Dr. King was ""tricky" and a "phony" after hearing about FBI tapes of him and a woman in his hotel room". (See: CBS News' "Jackie Kennedy: Martin Luther King Jr. "phony""). The former Mrs. Kennedy also said that King had mocked her husband's funeral and Cardinal Richard Cushing, who celebrated Mass at the funeral and that "I just can't see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, that man's terrible". id.

Besides government offices, whose employees get the day off with pay, schools and banks, I doubt it if very many businesses even celebrate the holiday. Watch this video, shot at 10:30 this morning, of the Jackson Street Extension and MacArthur Drive area of Alexandria to see just which businesses were closed:



Dr. King may very well deserve a national holiday. But wouldn't it have been smarter to wait until 2027 to see if this man deserved a national holiday to be named after him?

I can truly understand how Blacks are proud to have a national holiday named after Dr. King, but I don't think that he would be happy with the poor state of our education systems, still existent poverty, drugs and crime, among both Blacks and Whites.

But the worst thing is the pandering done by politicians for the Black vote while riding on Dr King's coat tails.