I wonder if the whitewashing is why MLK was celebrated and Malcolm X was not. Muhammad Ali - would he ever get a day of remembrance? I hope you write more about our shared American history and its civic leaders.
As always, a brilliant piece that so eloquently sums up my frustration with the whitewashed, revisionist image of Dr. King. Thank you for sharing your gift with words with us.
Thank you for this most amazing essay. You write with the wisdom of an elder. Your insights are so very necessary for a time such as this. Like Dr. King, you embrace with your words the “good trouble” that Dr. King, John Lewis, and many others lived their lives.
There are recent episodes of Throughline and Code Switch that reiterate a lot of the same things you've described very well here. It's just a portion of the Dare to Dissent episode of Throughline but basically the subject of the Code Switch episode. It's so disheartening and yet completely unsurprising to read how maligned King was for wanting more than cosmetic steps against institutional and systemic racism and for speaking out against Vietnam.
Thank you for shining the true light on Dr. MLK and his work! So many folks buy into or only know the whitewashing of his legacy. Just thank you and the choir says “Amen!”
"many of the people who now praise him and leverage his words, would have been jubilant at the news of his assassination."
Brilliantly put. MLK's legacy is so often misconstrued to whitewash and water down the civil rights movement. All so people can convince themselves they would have stood on the right side of history. His radicalism in his time is so important to acknowledge when remembering him today.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I wonder if the whitewashing is why MLK was celebrated and Malcolm X was not. Muhammad Ali - would he ever get a day of remembrance? I hope you write more about our shared American history and its civic leaders.
This was so good and so needed today. Thank you for this reminder!
Thank you, Fred. This brought me right back to the man I so respected and admired in the 1960's as a teenager. You have such a remarkable talent.
An excellent and provocative piece - thank you for the deeper dive.
A most excellent piece. Seems the same thing happened to Jesus too. We need the radical love the positive peace more than ever.
👏🏽 sharing this far and wide and pre-ordering your book.
As always, a brilliant piece that so eloquently sums up my frustration with the whitewashed, revisionist image of Dr. King. Thank you for sharing your gift with words with us.
Thank you for this most amazing essay. You write with the wisdom of an elder. Your insights are so very necessary for a time such as this. Like Dr. King, you embrace with your words the “good trouble” that Dr. King, John Lewis, and many others lived their lives.
There are recent episodes of Throughline and Code Switch that reiterate a lot of the same things you've described very well here. It's just a portion of the Dare to Dissent episode of Throughline but basically the subject of the Code Switch episode. It's so disheartening and yet completely unsurprising to read how maligned King was for wanting more than cosmetic steps against institutional and systemic racism and for speaking out against Vietnam.
I used a quote from your poem and drew an “upside down portrait of Dr King. It’s on my IG @Drlori_
Thank you!
Thank you.
Thank you for shining the true light on Dr. MLK and his work! So many folks buy into or only know the whitewashing of his legacy. Just thank you and the choir says “Amen!”
I am so grateful for your words and am especially touched by your poem and the potency of it as it encapsulated the entire essence of your piece.
"many of the people who now praise him and leverage his words, would have been jubilant at the news of his assassination."
Brilliantly put. MLK's legacy is so often misconstrued to whitewash and water down the civil rights movement. All so people can convince themselves they would have stood on the right side of history. His radicalism in his time is so important to acknowledge when remembering him today.