I imagine that if a Jeopardy contestant responded to an "answer" about an iconic civil rights leader with the question, "who is MLK" it would be deemed correct, such is the status of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. within the movement of the 1950s and 60s.
This is Martin Luther King Day, a civic holiday in the United States, even though creating it was resisted by many legislators, including President Ronald Reagan who eventually signed it into existence in 1983. King was a contentious figure and considered the most hated person in America during the period of his leadership. King's legacy is so great that we need the reminder that he was on the national and international stages for a mere 13 years, from 1956 until his assassination at age 39 in April of 1969.
During 2023 I read, sporadically, the book King: A Life by Jonathan Eig. He concedes that there a number of exceptional biographies of King but he was privy to revealing documents finally released by the FBI. The director of that shadowy institution was J. Edgar Hoover who despised King and did everything possible to discredit him.
King: A Life deserved my full attention because it is fascinating, Meticulously thorough, yet readable. At times it is disturbingly honest about King's frailties and yet honours the memory and achievements of a great man. The young King was ambitious and well aware of creating an image from early in his life. As with his preacher father, he changed his name from Michael to Martin and then Martin Luther, echoing the Protestant reformer. We now know that King plagarized for doctoral work, and in sermons and speeches. Even his most famous address, the soaring I Have A Dream speech at the March on Washington rally in 1963 likely had elements that were "borrowed" from a speech he heard along the way.
Eig also notes that King chewed his fingernails and shouted at the TV while watching quiz shows (did he watch the earliest episodes of Jeopardy in 1964?). He had a wicked sense of humour but he also attempted suicide as a teen and was hospitalized for depression through the years. He was told as a seminarian that he wasn't an accomplished public speaker so he worked diligently to become one. He loved his wife Coretta, and depended on her in many ways, yet he was unfaithful to her again and again.
What strikes me is that despite these human foibles, some of them serious, he was passionate about his Christian faith and torn between being a pastor, his first love, and the movement which both shaped and prematurely ended his life. He missed being in the pulpit from Sunday to Sunday but he also felt God's call to be an agent of change, whatever the consequences. The Civil Rights movement was just that, a movement which involved thousands of people in leadership and millions who participated. Still, there was a sense of destiny for this particular person.
Dr. Martin Luther King has become a saintly figure, often coopted now by people in the religious and political right who "cherry pick" quotes for their causes. A thorough examination of his life reveals his humanity while emphasizing that he, as with many biblical figures (think David and Peter) responded to God's invitation to serve despite their weaknesses. King returned to the gospel mandate and to the call of Jesus to follow again and again, and his world was changed as a result.
It's fascinating that the this Martin Luther King Day coincides with the Iowa caucuses in the United States. While I wondered whether democracy came to an end in America when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Since then many jurisdictions in the US have made it more difficult for Black people to vote, one of the key issues addressed by the Civil Rights movement.
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