We 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

We 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...