Missing from the MLK quotes that ricocheted across the internet on 18th of this month….
…was the shifting context in which Dr. King uttered them. The Deep South back then thought him “uppity” and “militant” because of his eloquent insistence for equal justice. He stood up to their constant saber rattling, gainsaying, and eventual fire-bombing with a piercing intellect. Grudgingly, the South along with the rest of America eventually accepted that his thoughts on race and class should be heard. But once he tied Vietnam to his principled stance on non-violence and the status of Blacks in America, again, pundits promptly pounced.
