cawacko
Well-known member
(I know people on this board were alive during MLK's life so I throw this out to you.)
I just finished reading a new biography on MLK by Jonathan Eig (It includes recently released info from the CIA and federal gov't who were tracking King so the book has an updated take in that regard.) Reading this really takes you back to a different time. Speaking of demographics, America was like 95% white and black during the 50's and 60's and of course heavily segregated in much of the country.
Some of the things that stood out:
- he raised a lot of money from people in the North (usually white liberals) to help fight Jim Crow and legal segregation in the South and received positive press coverage from Northern newspapers who showed the atrocities in the South garnering national support for change
- once he achieved some success in the South (with the passage of the civil rights bills) he turned his attention to the North (starting with Chicago); it was stated that the money from North (largely white liberals) started to dry up as they were good with donating when his actions were directed against the South but not so much in their own areas; this went the same for the Northern newspapers and their support for King
- after achieving a degree of success with the civil rights bills and knocking down Jim Crow, King struggled a bit finding his footing - clearly those bills alone didn't end segregation or the many problems black communities faced, but it was much easier to rally people against something so blatant
- King was one of the earliest opponents of the Vietnam War (at a time when many white and black people supported it); he received a lot of heat for it from both communities and many black people thought he was taking his eye off the civil rights fight by focusing on Vietnam
- I think it was 1966 when he went from being one of the most admired people in the country to not making the top ten; white people thought he was pushing too hard for change and causing problems and many black people started losing faith in him
- he continued to spend more time in the North (and places like Los Angeles) where they didn't have segregation codified into the laws like the South but racism was just as strong and they had de facto segregation
- he had to deal with the movement towards Black Power and those in the black community who where moving away from non violence into more militancy
- the CIA and the federal government obviously bugged/tracked everything he did and tried to use his womanizing against him
Clearly a lot more to the man and his life but for those who lived through this does this all ring a bell? Or do you have a different recollection?
I just finished reading a new biography on MLK by Jonathan Eig (It includes recently released info from the CIA and federal gov't who were tracking King so the book has an updated take in that regard.) Reading this really takes you back to a different time. Speaking of demographics, America was like 95% white and black during the 50's and 60's and of course heavily segregated in much of the country.
Some of the things that stood out:
- he raised a lot of money from people in the North (usually white liberals) to help fight Jim Crow and legal segregation in the South and received positive press coverage from Northern newspapers who showed the atrocities in the South garnering national support for change
- once he achieved some success in the South (with the passage of the civil rights bills) he turned his attention to the North (starting with Chicago); it was stated that the money from North (largely white liberals) started to dry up as they were good with donating when his actions were directed against the South but not so much in their own areas; this went the same for the Northern newspapers and their support for King
- after achieving a degree of success with the civil rights bills and knocking down Jim Crow, King struggled a bit finding his footing - clearly those bills alone didn't end segregation or the many problems black communities faced, but it was much easier to rally people against something so blatant
- King was one of the earliest opponents of the Vietnam War (at a time when many white and black people supported it); he received a lot of heat for it from both communities and many black people thought he was taking his eye off the civil rights fight by focusing on Vietnam
- I think it was 1966 when he went from being one of the most admired people in the country to not making the top ten; white people thought he was pushing too hard for change and causing problems and many black people started losing faith in him
- he continued to spend more time in the North (and places like Los Angeles) where they didn't have segregation codified into the laws like the South but racism was just as strong and they had de facto segregation
- he had to deal with the movement towards Black Power and those in the black community who where moving away from non violence into more militancy
- the CIA and the federal government obviously bugged/tracked everything he did and tried to use his womanizing against him
Clearly a lot more to the man and his life but for those who lived through this does this all ring a bell? Or do you have a different recollection?
