Before you post MLK quotes, research the man behind the myth....

During a meeting in Hayneyville, Alabama, on March 1, 1965 King inquired about voter registration procedures but Registrar Carl Golson told him "It's none of your business."HORACE CORT / AP

Today is MLK day in the US, and the day that social media timelines are invariably flooded with quotes for peace and understanding by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  However, most of those quotes are just pieces of a greater picture, and people do not truly understand the entirety of them. Dr. King has been "softened" into a much more palatable icon for those who he made so uncomfortable in the past.  He was radical. He was reactionary. He was revolutionary. He was not all "let's hold hand in a circle and sing". He was ready to fight and break laws when necessary. His views on nonviolence have been grossly distorted over the years. The incidents in this country over the past year have severely underlined the lack of racial understanding and harmony we have, especially in certain areas of the country.  If Dr. King were alive today, would we still perceive him the same way? Or would we have a much different opinion of him?

Before you post feel good memes or quotes with his picture, do your research and read what the man REALLY had to say.  Many of his quotes were "whitewashed" and made less aggressive than many people realize.  Read the ENTIRETY of Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Then ask yourself whether you truly understand what you are posting, and do you really see the message that it was intended to deliver. 


Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images


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