(the Washington Post catches up to the story)
By Lateshia Beachum 1/19/22
After Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones used the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words in a speech commemorating the life of the civil rights icon, historians are saying the discomfort she caused is indicative of how muddled the late leader’s stances have become over the years.
King’s legacy has been diluted to the point where even he wouldn’t recognize it, the King scholars said, underscoring how White authorities have used the civil rights leader for political prowess and how the United States is uncomfortable with inconvenient facts.
Charles McKinney, the Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies who is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College, said the King who’s celebrated by corporations, discussed in schools, and quoted by misguided politicians is one akin to a “toothless, peace-loving Black action hero” or a “Black Santa Claus” instead of the fierce social critic he was, especially on issues of poverty, white supremacy and militarization.