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Martin Luther King Didn't Kill Hitler

By wt

No one doubts that Martin Luther King, Jr. was largely responsible for the awareness of the civil rights struggle in the 50's and 60's. But is it really canonical that MLK is responsible for everything good associated with the civil rights movement?

Hillary got in trouble for saying in an interview that MLK needed President Johnson to get major civil rights legislation passed. Seems like a pretty obvious statement to me:

The most direct cause of the controversy was an interview Clinton gave to Major Garrett of Fox News in which she said in part: ?Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.?

Some black leaders have said they took that as diminishing King?s contribution to the nation?s progress on civil rights.

Wow. "Some black leaders" appear to have a really bad argument.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an elected official. He didn't pass any legislation. Johnson did. And to say that it doesn't take a President to advance the civil rights movement is outright weird and probably false.

Now, maybe that President should be Obama, not Clinton. But to insist that MLK got the 1964 civil rights bill passed on his own is clearly spurious. Also he didn't kill Hitler.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on January 15, 2008 (boomark / email).