King was very controversial in his day, and there seems to be little sense of that today. It’s as if people don’t really understand the whole picture, or appreciate what he was up against. Maybe that’s a testament to his (partial) success, but I still think we do his whole movement a disservice by implying that King was noncontroversial in his day.

I also think the latter years of his life ought to be studied more. I think that his movement went off the rails when King bought into the idea that government programs were the answer to improve the economic condition of blacks. The movement King once headed believes that to this day, and that belief has done a lot to stall progress in my opinion.

RIP, Dr. King.