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   From: rkoch@banmlkday.com   
      
   Every year on the third Monday in January, the United States   
   celebrates the life of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther   
   King Jr.   
      
   King is widely known and respected for his commitment to racial   
   equality, advocating for a nonviolent method of social changes   
   and preaching unforgettable words to mass audiences.   
      
   While popular memory has enshrined this image of King, the late   
   civil rights leader was a man of many positions and actions, as   
   well as the occasional flaw.   
      
   As one observes this year's MLK Day, consider some of the lesser   
   known factoids about the life and views of King.   
      
   1. King Opposed the Vietnam War   
      
   Ultimately, it probably makes a lot of sense that a man who   
   championed nonviolence to enact change would be antiwar.   
      
   In 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, King   
   delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam" at New York City's   
   Riverside Church.   
      
   King took exception to the war in part because of the belief   
   that resources being used to fight in Vietnam were being taken   
   from domestic improvement programs.   
      
   "We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our   
   society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee   
   liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in   
   southwest Georgia and East Harlem," stated King.   
      
   2. King Opposed Homosexuality   
      
   During the 1950s, King was an advice columnist for the African-   
   American publication Ebony magazine.   
      
   In 1958, an unnamed teenager wrote a letter to King, noting that   
   he was struggling with homosexual thoughts.   
      
   "I am a boy, but I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about   
   girls. I don't want my parents to know about me. What can I do?"   
   queried the young man.   
      
   King responded to the question, referring to homosexuality as a   
   "problem" and encouraging the youth to seek counseling.   
      
   "Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does   
   require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have   
   toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something   
   that has been culturally acquired," wrote King.   
      
   "Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting   
   back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to   
   the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a   
   good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the   
   forefront of conscience all of those experiences and   
   circumstances that lead to the habit."   
      
   3. King Held a Negative Opinion of Malcolm X   
      
   King and Malcolm X have oftentimes been grouped together, most   
   likely because they had a common enemy in white supremacy.   
      
   Yet the two charismatic and influential activists were hardly on   
   the same page when it came to each other, especially regarding   
   tactics and ethics.   
      
   In Chapter 25 of his autobiography, King noted that he had met   
   Malcolm X briefly at one point in Washington but found the   
   Nation of Islam member disagreeable.   
      
   "I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical   
   views — at least insofar as I understand where he now stands,"   
   wrote King.   
      
   "I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great   
   disservice. Fiery, demagogic oratory in the black ghettos,   
   urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in   
   violence, as he has done, can reap nothing but grief."   
      
   Given that Malcolm X called the famous March on Washington for   
   jobs and freedom the "Farce on Washington" and called King "Rev.   
   Dr. Chicken-wing," the feeling of disagreeableness might have   
   been mutual.   
      
   4. King Plagiarized His Doctoral Dissertation   
      
   A man known for his compelling rhetoric and memorable quotes, an   
   academe with years of college under his belt, it might come as a   
   shock that King once engaged in plagiarism.   
      
   In October of 1991, Boston University announced that King   
   plagiarized portions of his doctoral dissertation 36 years   
   before.   
      
   "Despite its finding, the committee said that 'no thought should   
   be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral degree,' an   
   action that the panel said would serve no purpose," reported The   
   New York Times.   
      
   "But the committee did recommend that a letter stating its   
   finding be placed with the official copy of Dr. King's   
   dissertation in the university's library."   
      
   For their part, The Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project   
   addressed the plagiarism in Volume II of The Papers of Martin   
   Luther King Jr. titled "Rediscovering Precious Values, July 1951-   
   November 1955": Although the extent of King's plagiaries suggest   
   he knew that he was at least skirting academic norms, the extant   
   documents offer no direct evidence in this matter," stated the   
   Project.   
      
   "King's actions during his early adulthood indicate that he   
   increasingly saw himself as a preacher appropriating theological   
   scholarship rather than as an academic producing such   
   scholarship."   
      
   5. King Opposed Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign   
      
   While oftentimes having to deal with the wrath of southern   
   sheriffs who belonged to the Democratic Party, Dr. King did not   
   necessarily spare the Republican Party any criticism.   
      
   When limited government proponent Barry Goldwater became the   
   Republican nominee for president in 1964, King called on blacks   
   and whites to vote against him.   
      
   "On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater   
   represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and   
   socially suicidal," wrote King in his autobiography.   
      
   "While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulated a   
   philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His   
   candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which   
   extremists of all stripes would stand."   
      
   King even took these complaints internationally. On a trip to   
   the Netherlands in August of 1964, he again took time to   
   criticize Goldwater.   
      
   "For the first time a major political party has nominated a man   
   who articulates views that are totally out of harmony with the   
   mainstream of American thought and views that are more in line   
   with the 18th century than the 20th century," said King.   
      
   6. King Supported the Removal of Faculty-led Prayer in Public   
   Schools   
      
   King was a clergyman, an activist who very much believed that   
   churches should be involved in social change movements.   
      
   He headed an advocacy group called the Southern Christian   
   Leadership Conference; but that did not mean he did not have   
   limits on how much church and state could mingle.   
      
   In an interview published by Playboy in 1965, King explained   
   that he supported the then recent U.S. Supreme Court decision   
   removing faculty-led prayer from public schools.   
      
   "Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither   
   prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours,   
   who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom?   
   Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has   
   no such right," said King.   
      
   "I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to   
   nullify the decision. They have been motivated, I think, by   
   little more than the wish to embarrass the Supreme Court."   
      
   7. King Used to be a Michael   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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