The Martin Luther King Thread

yeah, I'm looking forward to the annual bullshit CEO email about how "most importantly, he stood for peace" at which point I destroy my work laptop

course, this is the same CEO that said during the riot "while I know you will continue to delivery high quality work to your clients, make sure to take a few minutes off if you need it" while the shit aws still ongoing

ughhhh

yes, i agree re: the less preachy bs from management about a holiday the better.

I can't recommend Taylor Branch's biography of King highly enough. It restores to view all the deep and daily complexities of the problems faced by the civil rights movement, so it is possible to understand King's place in it. The bland bromides that get repeated every January have reduced that vast tumultuous history to the size of a pea.

Seconded. All three volumes are amazing and eye-opening. My one and only criticism is that, for a biography which is in a way about the entire civil rights movement as it is about King himself, it's very frustrating that the third volume ends abruptly with his assassination without going into any of the immediate fallout (about which I would highly recommend Clay Risen's A Nation on Fire, which is entirely focused on the reactions to the assassination in the days and weeks and months following).

And of course I posted pretty much exactly that two years ago upthread. Bears repeating, though.

Thirded, though I admit my attention wandered during the lengthy sections regarding the internal schisms within the Nation of Islam, though I understand it was necessary background to the Malcom X chapters in the second volume.

And of course I posted pretty much exactly that two years ago upthread. Bears repeating, though.

Kinda blows my mind that he would only be in his 90s now, I don’t know why.

Great revive

I heard today that he hid his cigarette smoking from his children

it was just nice to hear something simple and human about a figure that's almost become godlike here in the U.S.

relatable too

A few years ago we went and did kind of the MLK self-guided tour in Atlanta — the neighborhood where he grew up, his church, and of course his and Coretta’s tomb. It was edifying, helped make him more real, provided context.

that sounds v cool

The whole area is a declared national historical park, and the National Park Service has done a good job with informational kiosks etc.

https://www.nps.gov/malu/index.htm

If you’re in/near Memphis, the National Civil Rights Museum (with tour) is highly recommended.

I went last spring when I was in the city for a wedding.

Yes, that’s also excellent. I haven’t been in years, I’m sure they’ve changed some things, need to go back.