It is argued that King was lucky in that his preaching’s and speeches were confirmed by events happening in the United States, which as a result increased peoples faith and belief in MLK. For example, when Emmet Till was murdered by two white men for talking to a white woman, the media picked up on this and showed pictures of Tills mutilated body. There was also a lot of media coverage of the attacks on African Americans and churches during the Montgomery bus boycott. It could be said these attacks were in retaliation to Kings ever increasing popularity, but nevertheless, the black people of America continued their support for King.
King’s contributions to forming well structured organisations is also admired by many. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and decided that in order to make the civil rights movement more united, he merged various groups from the South of America. Throughout the next decade, King, maybe unwittingly, became an unofficial leader to the civil rights movement.
King had huge inspiration towards others contributions to the movement. In 1960 many lunch counter protesters formed the SNCC, a non-violent organisation. There were also many whites who wanted blacks to achieve racial equality and where inspired by King to let their voices be heard. There was an increasing interest from all people in this movement, due to Kings non violent methods.
As stated, King gradual achieved governmental recognition for his works, much due to the huge media interest. He soon gained strong connections to the White House during the terms of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. This was a major step forward for the movement. After Robert E Kennedy, the attorney in general, helped in the release of MLK from jail after a protest arresting, MLK created a great link with the Kennedy’s. With the desegregation of blacks and whites in school a top priority for the movement, Kennedy, due to his strong links with MLK, used his power and status to help achieve desegregation on a number of occasions in the South.
It is said that during King’s time the Civil Rights Movement took great steps in achieving its goal. Before his emergence, the movement was very ineffective, and after his assassination, organisations started to decline in popularity. However attitudes towards African Americans had changed positively. Many schools were now mixed, and blacks would no longer live in fear.
However this perception of MLK’s legacy and his great individual strides in achieving Civil Rights is viewed by many as being false. Ella Barker’s statement - “The movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement”, is supported by the fact that the movement was already in full stride before MLK’s emergence. The NAACP had already been victorious in the board versus the board of education case in 1954. Neither was King present in the Little Rock event of 1957 where the strong stance taken by nine black students resulted in their acceptance into a high school. Except his influence to Robert Kennedy, King played little part in individually tackling the issue of desegregation in schools.
Martin Luther King’s first claim to fame was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, it is said that he never had aspirations to be a civil rights leader, and only got involved with the boycott because he was chosen to do so by E.D Nixon.
It is claimed that King’s only quality were his communication skills, the ability to convey his messages towards the black people. It is said though his leadership skills were just hype. Both the lunch protesters and freedom rides in the early 1960’s were organised by students, and the SNCC and CORE both started to lose admiration towards King in the sixties. As leader of the SCLC, king experienced a number of disappointments. Various campaigns to increase voter registration and to desegregate Albany in the state of Georgia proved unsuccessful.
A major criticism of Martin Luther King’s work is his failure to have any impact in the North. All his major successes were based on events in the south, and even the SCLC headquarters were in Atlanta. King did attempt a few marches in the north, such as a demonstration in Chicago, but had not even a shadow of the impact he experienced in the north. He received an unwelcome reception from the northerners and was even injured by a brick thrown at him as he marched.
With no support in the north, King’s popularity in other areas was also fast decreasing by 1966. SNCC and CORE both turned to the teachings of Malcolm X to gain their freedom. His connections with the White House also took a huge blow when he publicly criticised President Johnson for the war in Vietnam.
As MLK’s legacy goes on, more and more doubts and revelations about the man are uncovered, as it is often suggested that King had strong links with communism. In his book “My Awakening”, David Duke states that “Most people still do not know of the extent of King's involvement in Communism….because the media continues to focus on his successes”. Events in Kings personal life also question his competence as a civil right leader. It is suggested that King had an obsession with prostitutes and used church funds for drunken parties. One of King's closest associates addressed rumors about King's sexual activities in his 1989 book, "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down." He said that King did have a weakness for women and engaged in affairs. Although King denied all rumours, the FBI did document some sexual encounters involving Martin Luther King but are still unable to release them. During his time, there was no attention paid to Kings personal life, again showing the media influence into Kings Popularity. But it also makes people think whether a man with such left wing views and possibly an unfaithful husband who went against his faith by engaging in affairs with prostitutes, could really have been responsible for the achievements of the civil rights movements.
His ability to create great and well structured speeches is credited as an important factor in the advances made for the Civil Rights Movement by MLK. However it was revealed that his work may not have been his own, with suggestions that even the “I have a Dream Speech” was plagiarized. It is said that during college MLK plagarised many of his writings. The staff at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project discovered a lot of plagiarism in Martin Luther King's writings and in a 1991 article in “The journal of American History” said that "plagiarism was a general pattern evident in nearly all of his academic writings" including his doctoral dissertation. However whether King plagiarized the “I have a Dream Speech” is disputed by many historians. The argument against King is that he borrowed from a speech given to the Republican convention in 1952 by an African-American preacher named Archibald Carey, Jr. Some historians say he gave Carey's speech word-for-word. However after researching both speeches, I have come up with the conclusion that that King borrowed from the idea of the speech by Carey, who he publicly said he admired. However only the last couple of paragraph's resembled Carey's speech and the only significant similarity is that both mentioned lyrics from the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee." However the suggestions that King plagiarized much of his work during college brings into question his contribution to the civil rights movement and whether he should be gained such a high profile. It could be said that by “faking” his way to the top, King got an easy ride and never put any effort into making the civil rights movement. This characteristic in his personality can be supported by the ideas that he never individually participated in events he organized and often relied on others to carry these out.
Ella Baker’s statement is well supported by many facts and revelations about MLK since his death. However, it could be say Baker had a personal purpose for her claims. The book “Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision” by Barbra Ransby claims baker “had to play second fiddle to more powerful men”, which made it difficult for her to conform to male-dominated hierarchies. . She quit the NAACP when she could no longer abide Walter White and left SCLC after becoming disenchanted with King. It could be said Baker had a personal vendetta against MLK, who was constantly receiving recognition for the hard work that many unsung civil rights heroes like Baker were putting in.
The Freedom Rides of 1961 were credited as being the work of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference organisation. However it was the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) who were behind the rides. When MLK was asked to join the freedom riders into Mississippi he declined their invitation, thus resulting in the organisation to publicly show their mistrust in a leader who, As Ling puts it, “preferred to cheer from the sidelines.”
