The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr.

writes in his poem A Dead Man’s Dream,įor they cannot rise to challenge the images Since his assasination, a fable has been created about King that makes him a safe, convenient hero as Carl Wendell Hines Jr. government and corporate media actively tried to undermine him. In fact, 75% of Americans did not approve of King’s actions and the U.S. Theoharis responded that while he was alive, King did not enjoy popular support.

In A More Beautiful and Terrible History you write, “When asked to name a ‘most famous American’ other than a president ‘from Columbus to today,’ high school students most often chose Martin Luther King Jr. is as close to a saint as we have in this country. Hagopian opened the conversation by noting, Theoharis also talked about the radical influence of Coretta Scott King, which generated a lot of interest in the chat box and session reflections. This sixth session in the Zinn Education Project People’s Historians Online series addressed King’s positions on oppression in the North, police brutality, the Memphis sanitation workers, reparations (the “bad check”), the Poor People’s Campaign, and more. On International Workers’ Day (May 1), close to 300 educators, parents, and students joined the session with Jeanne Theoharis and Jesse Hagopian on the radical history of Dr. This Zoom with over 200 participants was way more productive than Zooms I’ve been on with 10 or less people. We scratched the surface but also dove deep with resources to continue learning and growing. I didn’t realize coming in to this that the author of A More Beautiful and Terrible History would be presenting and I got so excited when I did! Her book was my inspiration to take a hard look at how my lessons were framed this year and make a change.

The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr.