Are the Lesser Known Actions and Decisions Made by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a Contradiction of the Saintly Image and Reputation Created by His Work as a Civil Rights Protestor and Icon of Racial Equality?

Are the lesser known actions and decisions made by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. A contradiction of the saintly image and reputation created by his work as a civil rights protestor and icon of racial equality?

Every year since 2000, America as a nation has honoured the memory of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) on the third Monday of January, designated so as to coincide with his birthday. This holiday, the only holiday celebrated in the memory of a single person that is celebrated in every state and the only that is recognised as a federal (bank) holiday, rather than merely as a ceremonial one, is celebrated in recognition of MLK's status as an icon of the progression of racial equality in the USA. As such, it is no overstatement to describe him as one of the greatest men in American History. However, certain aspects of his life are often forgotten all too easily. Whether this be out of respect so as not to sour his image, an act of denial, or something different is not usually clear. But today I aim to reach a definitive conclusion as to whether or not the lesser known, less glorious parts of MLK's life, were in fact a major contradiction of the saintly image he is so often given. As a means to this end, I shall be discussing three topics: MLK's unfaithfulness in his romantic relationships and his affairs with women other than his wife, accusations into his tendencies to plagiarise, with famous documents such as his doctoral dissertation at Boston University, as well as suspicions in relation to his involvement with the communist party of Russia, and to what extent his actions were influenced by their ideology.

Firstly, rumours that MLK had a tendency to use church donations as a way of funding his fondness of white prostitutes were known to those close to King long before they were made public. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, an associate of King's, wrote in his 1989 autobiography 'And the Walls Came Tumbling Down' that King had a "weakness for women" , he also frequently used the term "Womanising" , although he did not specifically say that King had sex outside of his marriage. However, King's biographer David Garrow wrote extensively about what he referred to as King's "Compulsive sexual athleticism" , writing about a number of extramarital affairs, including a series of affairs with a woman King saw almost daily. According to Garrow, "That relationship, rather than his marriage, increasingly became the emotional centrepiece of King's life." He went on to write that these affairs did not "eliminate the other incidental couplings that were a commonplace of King's travels." Garrow noted the King's immorality was the cause of "Painful and overwhelming guilt feelings." But equally, in the words of King himself, it was "A form of anxiety reduction."

Much evidence was found of King's adulterous activities, but never released to the public until after his death, the most substantial form of which was in the surveillance tapes of King belonging to the FBI. During the 1950's and in particular the 60's, the FBI spent a considerable amount of time monitoring the actions of MLK during his speaking and organising tours. According

534/534 WORDS

to William C Sullivan, the general director of the FBI during the 60's, a man that had unrestricted access to these tapes, King had "embezzled and misapplied substantial amounts of money belonging to the SCLC. Money he used to pay for liquor, numerous prostitutes both black and white, who were brought to his hotel rooms, often two at a time, for drunken sex parties which sometimes lasted for several days." Sullivan said this is his autobiography 'My thirty years in Hoover's FBI'.

In relation to whether or not this information really proves a point, you have to consider the position of the men who provided this evidence. Abernathy and Garrow, these men were both good friends of King when he was alive, one of which was his biographer, and as such, you can't imagine that they would write and say things with the expressed purpose of bad-mouthing him, the more likely action would be for them to sugar-coat their words so as not to sour his name. Bearing in mind that neither of them do this, Garrow especially, you could assume quite safely that what they are saying is genuine. In the case of the evidence coming directly from the FBI, there is no real way to tell if what they are saying is reliable, on one hand you have an organisation dedicated to revealing the truth for the greater good, but on the other we have an organisation that has deliberately kept information from the public on the subject, whether or not one chooses to see their words as reliable is a matter of opinion.

Furthermore, when considering whether or not this information affect the overall image of MLK, the answer is obvious, it does, badly. MLK was a man of God, the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Adultery is a direct contradiction of the Ten Commandments seen in the Bible. Not only this, but his actions contradict his own values of unity, loyalty and faith in one another, values which he often preached during sermons and speeches across the country to hundreds of thousands of American people, even though there was a distinct possibility he had ignored these words the night before when he had committed adultery.

Secondly; MLK's wife, Coretta Scott King, donated her husband's papers to the Stanford University's King Papers Project in 1985, a project set up to acquire and catalogue the material King wrote in his time as a student at Boston University for the benefit of future students nationwide. As the papers were being organised and catalogued, project staff discovered that King's doctoral dissertation; 'A comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Wilson Wieman', included large sections from a dissertation written three years earlier by another student, Jack Boozer, at the same institution. Boston University launched its own probe and concluded that King had plagiarised major sections of his doctoral thesis from many other authors who wrote on the topic, including Jack Boozer.

"Instances of textual appropriation can be seen in his earliest writings as well as his dissertation. The pattern is also noticeable in his speeches and sermons throughout his career," writes Clayborne Carson, director of the King Papers project at Stanford University. According to civil rights historian Ralph E. Luker, who worked on the King Papers Project directing the research on King's early life, King's paper 'The Chief Characteristics and Doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism' was taken almost entirely from secondary sources. He