As the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination approaches and people across the country seek to celebrate his memory, it is a key time to reflect on what King’s legacy was ― and wasn’t ― and what it might look like to really honor him today.
Time and again, educators and activists, including King’s daughter Bernice, have pointed to how King’s words have been whitewashed and mischaracterized over time, with children taught a sanitized version of King’s activism in schools, contributing to a deliberately distorted view of the civil rights leader as more of a pacifist, less of a radical than he was.
People often quote King preaching about love ― his famed “hate cannot drive out hate” quote is all over Instagram ― while they less often cite his more anti-establishment statements, such as his calling out the “white moderate” in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.”
[For more on this story by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, go to https://www.theatlantavoice.co...g-jr-s-legacy-today/]
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