XPost: alt.politics.democrats.d, alt.guns, alabama.general   
   XPost: memphis.events   
   From: rkoch@banmlkday.com   
      
   Martin Luther King was a hero but he was certainly no saint. If   
   he'd had to face aggressive tabloids and gossip websites, his   
   career would have been destroyed – as, of course, would John F   
   Kennedy's.   
      
   Let's begin with the real career-killer: he plagiarised his   
   doctoral thesis from Boston University. This very useful post on   
   snopes.com about the Martin Luther King scandals does a good job   
   of separating myth from reality, and the plagiarism is proven.   
   The following is from The New York Times in 1991:   
      
   A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded   
   today that the Rev Martin Luther King Jr plagiarized passages in   
   his dissertation for a doctoral degree at the university 36   
   years ago.   
      
   "There is no question," the committee said in a report to the   
   university's provost, "but that Dr King plagiarized in the   
   dissertation by appropriating material from sources not   
   explicitly credited in notes, or mistakenly credited, or   
   credited generally and at some distance in the text from a close   
   paraphrase or verbatim quotation."   
      
   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.   
      
   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.   
      
   You may not be surprised to learn that the story of King's   
   plagiarism was around for a long time before the American press   
   deigned to touch it – but when his old university found him   
   retrospectively guilty the story could hardly be ignored.   
   Needless to say, BU didn't take away his doctorate, as it would   
   have in almost any other similar case.   
      
   Then there's King's womanising, not quite as pathological as   
   JFK's but still – even according to some of his friends – pretty   
   vigorous. Civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy, who was with   
   him when he was murdered, was explicit on the subject in his   
   autobiography. As People magazine reported in 1989:   
      
   Abernathy's damning charge is that King spent the last night of   
   his life enjoying two successive extramarital liaisons, followed   
   by a knockdown motel-room fight with a third woman.   
      
   Abernathy caused huge offence with his claim – but he replied by   
   saying that he was keen to dispel myths about King. Yes, he had   
   a voracious sexual appetite; but no, he did not have a taste for   
   white prostitutes, as his enemies alleged. Those enemies   
   included Jackie Kennedy, as the Daily Mail reported in 2011:   
      
   Jackie Kennedy hated Martin Luther King so much she could barely   
   look at photographs of him.   
      
   In interviews taped in 1964 but only just released, she said the   
   black civil rights leader was a "terrible man" and a "phoney".   
      
   She claimed King bragged of being drunk at her husband John F   
   Kennedy’s funeral and had been caught trying to set up an orgy.   
      
   Mrs Kennedy said her view of King was formed after being told   
   [by Robert Kennedy] of secret FBI wiretaps which showed him   
   trying to organise a sex party before he attended the March on   
   Washington in August 1963, at which he delivered his "I Have a   
   Dream" speech.   
      
   As I say, Martin Luther King was a hero. We shouldn't remember   
   him for cheating on his doctorate and his wife. But it's worth   
   noting: if he'd been a famous white Republican, his reputation   
   would have been comprehensively trashed by historians and the   
   media.   
      
   http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100232872/if-   
   the-tabloids-had-been-around-in-his-day-dr-martin-luther-king-   
   would-be-in-big-trouble/   
          
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)