What is the Straight Dope on Martin Luther King Jr.? Did he plagiarize most of his writing, including his PhD thesis? Was he a communist? Did he really use donated money for prostitutes? These allegations are brought up at www.treykorte.com/politics/MLKJR.html, “[not] to bring down MLK, Jr.” but to “subject him to the same sort of dirt-digging that leaders such as George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and other dead white guys have suffered.” The same contentions are cited at christianparty.net/mlktruth.htm, and probably other Web sites. If anyone can shed light on this, oh Master, it is you; please edify us. –Roy Greene, Frederick, Maryland
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Considering how he was vilified while he was alive, Martin Luther King Jr. has gotten off easy since his death, despite some embarrassing posthumous revelations. Partly that’s because he’s been embraced by conservatives, who now point to him as a symbol of moderation and self-reliance, in contrast to the likes of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton. Still, as you say, certain questions arise.
Did he spend donated money on prostitutes? The most sordid charges about MLK’s sex life, this one included, come from the FBI and can’t necessarily be trusted. But there’s no doubt about what one biographer calls King’s “compulsive sexual athleticism.” King’s attitude toward women was chauvinist and often exploitative. In his 1989 autobiography, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, King’s close friend and fellow civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy writes that on the night before he died, King gave a rousing speech, had dinner with a woman afterward and remained with her till 1 AM, then came back to his motel to spend the night with a second woman. In the early morning hours a third woman came looking for King and became angry when she found the bed in the room he shared with Abernathy unoccupied. When King reappeared, he argued with woman number three and wound up knocking her across the bed.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
