Martin Luther King Jr. 
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SOURCE: Religion & Politics
6/14/2022
MLK and Today's Global Struggle for Democracy
by Randal Maurice Jelks
"Thinking about King’s Holt Street speech brings me full circle to contemporary times as I try to understand this most anti-democratic era, one not seen since the 1930s as the clouds of World War II loomed on the horizon."
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SOURCE: Jacobin
5/31/2022
Why Do We Neglect MLK's Dream of a World Freed from Poverty?
by Jeffrey Nall
The modern veneration of Martin Luther King ignores the last incomplete mission of his life – the demand for economic justice and an end to poverty.
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SOURCE: The City Life
5/3/2022
Traveling Smithsonian Exhibition to Highlight 1968 Poor People's Campaign
Reflecting Dr. King's increased attention to matters of inequality and economic justice, the Poor People's Campaign was launched in his honor a month after his assassination. The exhibition will begin at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
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SOURCE: TomDispatch
4/14/2022
Now is the Time to Heed MLK's Warning about the Giant Triplets of Injustice
by Andrew Bacevich
It would be a grave mistake to allow Putin's invasion of Russia to stop our consideration of the role of militarism, along with racism and materialistic greed, in thwarting justice.
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SOURCE: Boston Review
4/13/2022
What Makes Laws Unjust?
by Randall L. Kennedy
In Dr. King's time, appraisals of his civil disobedience tactics hinged on how one defined an unjust law, an obstacle that inevitably confronts protest movements in polarized societies.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
4/5/2022
KBJ Confirmation Shows Misremembrance of MLK as Advocate of "Colorblindness"
by Bev-Freda Jackson
"Jackson’s appointment holds a significant symbolic value and adds an important message about the legacy of King’s sermons, speeches and writings."
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
1/17/2022
Americans Misunderstand the Radical Vision of even the Young MLK
by Victoria W. Wolcott
Long before the escalation of the war in Vietnam, urban unrest and national battles for fair housing that animated King's late work, he expressed a vision of justice that demanded systemic transformation of American society. His wife Coretta was a profound influence.
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SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
1/17/2022
MLK was CRT Before there was a Name For It (Ask One of the Scholars Who Founded the Field)
by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
A founder of the Critical Race Theory movement argues the movement, like Dr. King, insists that "the promise of liberation extends beyond the elimination of formal segregation and individual-level prejudice."
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SOURCE: WBUR
1/17/2022
Annette Gordon-Reed: Don't Accept "Cuddly" King Image
The late leader's opposition to militarism, economic injustice, and white supremacy, which sustained a broad critique of capitalist society, have been sanitized and reduced to platitudes by people who would prefer not to recognize the equality of all people, the historian told the annual MLK Memorial Breakfast.
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SOURCE: CNN
1/17/2022
The White Moderates King Warned About
by Victor Ray
"By blocking voting reform today, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are the White moderates Dr. King warned us about."
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
1/9/2022
MLK's History Lessons
by Jelani Cobb
Martin Luther King's use of American history to inform his developing demands for political and economic justice would run afoul fo legislation being passed by a growing number of states to restrict teaching about racism and inequality in the nation's past.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
1/4/2022
"A Minority of Misguided Senators": MLK on the Filibuster
“I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won’t let the majority senators vote."
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SOURCE: New York Times
11/9/2021
What "Structural Racism" Means
by Jamelle Bouie
The writings of Oliver Cromwell Cox challenged the midcentury liberal conception of racism as a caste problem by linking it to capitalist exploitation and material inequality. He profoundly influenced Martin Luther King Jr.'s social critique and offers a way out of the dead end of "wokeness" and "identity politics."
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
10/14/2021
The Second Assassination of MLK
by Ibram X. Kendi
"King’s modern-day assassins disregard everything he said about education."
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SOURCE: Black Perspectives
9/30/2021
Misappropriating MLK in the Critical Race Theory Debate
by Tyler D. Parry
Selective readings of Martin Luther King's writing and speeches swap his radical critiques of capitalism, militarism and inequality for bland colorblindness. The fact is that "CRT" is deeply rooted in King's work, which was unpopular among white Americans in his own time.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
9/15/2021
Martin Luther King Knew: Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality
by Jeanne Theoharis
Despite contemporary efforts to portray contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter and radical groups like the Black Panther Party as deviators from the "respectable" movement led by MLK, the SCLC leader insisted on the need to combat police brutality despite the unpopularity of that position,
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SOURCE: Texas Tribune
7/28/2021
Texas Lawmakers Used MLK’s Words To Attack Critical Race Theory. MLK III Says His Father’s Work Actually Supports It
“Yes, we should judge people by the content of the character and not the color of their skin — but that is when we have a true, just, humane society where there are no biases, where there is no racism, where there is no discrimination,” Martin Luther King III said. “Unfortunately, all of these things still exist.”
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
2/8/2021
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Challenge to Liberal Allies — And Why it Resonates Today
by Jeanne Theoharis
The present tendency to pigeonhole King's work as a challenge to southern Jim Crow obscures his demands for deep reform to national priorities, emphasis on economic justice, and insistence that liberalism live up to its creed of equality.
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SOURCE: New York Times
1/18/2021
The Words of Martin Luther King Jr. Reverberate in a Tumultuous Time
Clayborne Carson, the founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute is part of a roundup of scholars and activists who point to King's speeches other than 1963's "I Have a Dream" as guiding lights for our time.
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SOURCE: Smithsonian
1/15/2021
A New Film Details the FBI’s Relentless Pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr.
The new film "MLK/FBI" addresses Americans' failure to remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was unpopular, labeled as divisive and subversive, and subject to harassment by federal law enforcement agencies during his life.
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