2 ms·
He largely did not win hearts and minds. What he did win was the court and a loud enough minority that politicians had to cave. When your cause can sign up an i
by generj 4y ago
He largely did not win hearts and minds. What he did win was the court and a loud enough minority that politicians had to cave. When your cause can sign up an innumerable amount of clean dressed people to volunteer for mob attacks and imprisonment, society has to respect you lest these same committed souls decide dying for the cause might as well require enemies to the cause die as well. The Black Panthers and others had about reached that point, and the implicit threat that if society doesn’t create a true peace society doesn’t get peace was what created a civil rights victory.
MLK Jr. was among the most controversial and least liked members of the country at his death and throughout his campaign for civil rights. Most people would have described the civil rights campaign as flipping a legislative switch deciding for the population.
- subjectsigma 4y agoWe are getting a little off topic, but… This isn’t what I was taught in school about MLK Jr. He was assassinated so obviously someone didn’t like him, but I always thought his movement was pretty instrumental on moving the needle and he was respected (if not liked) by white Americans. Googling around for a bit I could not seem to find reliable statistics on whether or not people supported him but it ranges anywhere from 45% to 70% of the population. Can you recommend a book on the topic or something? I’m actually curious now.
- generj 4y agoWe are definitely off topic but since we are just leaving the MLK Jr. Holiday so hopefully the forum will indulge our sidebar. I wish I had a good book for you. My friend probably has six, I may ask him for a recommendation later. There’s a growing movement that says nonviolent actors received too much of the credit for the Civil rights movement, with MLK Jr in particular getting outsized accolades. Giving him credit was very convenient as he was dead and could not directly condemn the current conditions. 40-60% is probably about right for general support for civil rights, but with major caveats. For example, 58% of people supported the Civil Rights Act but only 19% wanted it to be vigorously enforced [0]. So you see for example a backlash to school bussing, NYC schools not being integrated for decades after civil rights, etc. Northerners mostly supported civil rights so long as it only impacted those backwards Southerners but were not ready for real integration. Support for interracial marriage did not reach above 50% approval until in the 1990s despite being allowed nationally by the Supreme Court in 1967. That’s a good example IMO of how civil rights bypassed the slow change in opinion via the courts. The Harris poll [1] near his death had him at around 75% disapproval and only 50% black approval. Critically this was after he pivoted from a civil rights focus towards anti-war and anti-poverty (both in his mind an obvious extension of the civil rights movement - others did not agree). [0] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/16/50-years-ago-mixed-views-about-civil-rights-but-support-for-selma-demonstrators/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/16/50-years-ag... [1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-martin-luther-king-had-75-percent-disapproval-rating-year-he-died-180968664/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-martin-luther-kin...
- subjectsigma 4y agoThanks for the links!