-Caveat Lector-
~~for educational purposes only~~
[Title 17 U.S.C. section 107]
Myths of Martin Luther King
by Marcus Epstein
There is probably no greater sacred cow in
America than Martin Luther King Jr. The slightest
criticism of him or even suggesting that he isnt
deserving of a national holiday leads to the usual
accusations of racist, fascism, and the rest of the
usual left-wing epithets not only from liberals, but
also from many ostensible conservatives and
libertarians.
This is amazing because during the 50s and 60s, the
Right almost unanimously opposed the civil rights
movement. Contrary to the claims of many neocons,
the opposition was not limited to the John Birch
Society and southern conservatives. It was made by
politicians like Ronald Reagan and Barry
Goldwater, and in the pages of Modern Age,
Human Events, National Review, and the Freeman.
Today, the official conservative and libertarian
movement portrays King as someone on our side
who would be fighting Jesse Jackson and Al
Sharpton if he were alive. Most all conservative
publications and websites have articles around this
time of the year praising King and discussing how
todays civil rights leaders are betraying his legacy.
Jim Powells otherwise excellent The Triumph of
Liberty rates King next to Ludwig von Mises and
Albert J. Nock as a libertarian hero. Attend any IHS
seminar, and youll read A letter from a
Birmingham Jail as a great piece of anti-statist
wisdom. The Heritage Foundation regularly has
lectures and symposiums honoring his legacy. There
are nearly a half dozen neocon and left-libertarian
think tanks and legal foundations with names such
as The Center for Equal Opportunity and the
American Civil Rights Institute which claim to
model themselves after King.
Why is a man once reviled by the Right now
celebrated by it as a hero? The answer partly lies in
the fact that the mainstream Right has gradually
moved to the left since Kings death. The influx of
many neoconservative intellectuals, many of whom
were involved in the civil rights movement, into the
conservative movement also contributes to the King
phenomenon. This does not fully explain the picture,
because on many issues King was far to the left of
even the neoconservatives, and many King admirers
even claim to adhere to principles like freedom of
association and federalism. The main reason is that
they have created a mythical Martin Luther King Jr.,
that they constructed solely from one line in his I
Have a Dream speech.
In this article, I will try to dispel the major myths
that the conservative movement has about King. I
found a good deal of the information for this piece
in I May Not Get There With You: The True
Martin Luther King by black leftist Michael Eric
Dyson. Dyson shows that King supported black
power, reparations, affirmative action, and
socialism. He believes this made King even more
admirable. He also deals frankly with Kings
philandering and plagiarism, though he excuses
them. If you dont mind reading his long discussions
about gangsta rap and the like, I strongly
recommend this book.
Myth #1: King wanted only equal rights, not
special privileges and would have opposed
affirmative action, quotas, reparations, and the
other policies pursued by todays civil rights
leadership.
This is probably the most repeated myth about King.
Writing on National Review Online, There Heritage
Foundations Matthew Spalding wrote a piece
entitled Martin Luther Kings Conservative Mind,
where he wrote, An agenda that advocates quotas,
counting by race and set-asides takes us away from
King's vision.
The problem with this view is that King openly
advocated quotas and racial set-asides. He wrote
that the Negro today is not struggling for some
abstract, vague rights, but for concrete improvement
in his way of life. When equal opportunity laws
failed to achieve this, King looked for other ways.
In his book Where Do We Go From Here, he
suggested that A society that has done something
special against the Negro for hundreds of years
must now do something special for him, to equip
him to compete on a just and equal basis. To do
this he expressed support for quotas. In a 1968
Playboy interview, he said, If a city has a 30%
Negro population, then it is logical to assume that
Negroes should have at least 30% of the jobs in any
particular company, and jobs in all categories
rather than only in menial areas. King was more
than just talk in this regard. Working through his
Operation Breadbasket, King threatened boycotts of
businesses that did not hire blacks in proportion to
their population.
King was even an early proponent of reparations. In
his 1964 book, Why We Cant Wait, he wrote,
No amount of gold could provide an adequate
compensation for the exploitation and
humiliation of the Negro in America down
through the centuries
Yet a price can be
placed on unpaid wages. The ancient common
law has always provided a remedy for the
appropriation of
