The Truth About Martin Luther King

摘要

The holy father may just make it official: last week the American Roman Catholic bishops asked Pope John Paul II to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. as a 20th-century martyr—someone who died for the faith. More than three decades after his death, and on the 71st anniversary of his birth, King is receding ever further into myth. To many whites, he is the preacher who, at the March on Washington, summoned the nation to higher ground—and the country answered his call, taking down the WHITE ONLY signs. To many African-Americans, particularly the young, King was far from revolutionary: he was conservative, middle class, safe.