Reply #3: I haven't been on DU much today, but I think it's interesting

[Number23]

that on King's birthday there are two things I see going on.

1) There doesn't seem to be all that much interest in Dr. King's birthday, which interests me considering the number of times that he is quoted/referred to on this web site; and

2) I also find it remarkable that there seems to be an effort to almost MINIMIZE King's efforts and role as a black rights leader. Most of the topics on Dr. King today have been on his Out of Vietnam speech and his work for the sanitation workers. One poster said that "King realized that it wasn't about race" which I find baffling at the very least. I saw another person that said he "evolved" past "just" civil rights for blacks, as if civil rights for blacks in and of itself is not enough to glorify and honor this man.

These speeches and the work that Dr. King did in these areas is magnificent, but for me, Dr. King will always be first and FOREMOST the man who put his life on the line for the black community. The man who went to jail for the black community. The man who openly wept when talking about making life better for "little black girls and boys." Who was not afraid to speak to even the most rabid racists on earth if it meant improving the lives of his fellow blacks. He was a remarkable man and proponent of human rights and social justice for all, but the issues that made him THE Martin Luther King, Jr., the cause that garnered him international recognition, including a Nobel Peace Prize, was civil rights for blacks. The efforts to minimize this that I see on DU today strike me as incredibly bizarre.