In cruising the blogsphere for perspective on Mrs. King, I found this on James Joyner's blog...

She was a revered figure--as Juan Williams put it on NPR, the "queen" of the civil rights movement--solely for the fact that she was Dr. King's widow. She has spent the last several decades doggedly fighting against any attempt to portray King as anything but a Christ-like figure and has succeeded in elevating him to iconic status beyond his actual role in gaining equality for black Americans.

Having met Mrs. King, I have little argument with James about her efforts to preserve the memory of her husband sin flaws...

But I wonder why James feels he can be a judge of the impact King had on the role of gaining equality for African Americans. Having been associated with the movement nearly from my first steps, and having lived through Dr. Kings assassination, I can say that NO ONE had more of an impact.

I would add, that though the King families iron control of image and copyrights to Dr. King's speeches and documents are a bone of contention for many, and while I would like to have seen "I have a dream," put in the public domain, some forget that Mrs. King had every right to do so. And that much of her support was gleaned from that material after the death of her husband. I am also sure that at least part of that effort was based on keeping her husbands work off of cheap t-shirts and head shop posters.

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.grupo-utopia.com/blog/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1431