A Response to Comments Throwing Shade on MLK’s Legacy by Bringing Up His Infidelities
Few historical figures have inspired me more than Martin Luther King II. Unfortunately, every year around this time I inevitably run into comments from unhappy people who bring up his history of infidelity in an apparent effort to discredit his legacy. This unflattering history is based on comments from his closest confidants and from FBI documents which revealed that the US government would illegally surveil and harass civil rights activists in covert efforts to stop their movement in part by destroying their families.
In short, The response to these disparaging comments should be that every hero worth celebrating struggled with two great adversities: An adversary without, and an adversary within. We do not know as much about the latter struggle in MLK’s life given that a well-rounded account of it would require a detailed autobiography of some kind which we do not have for King. We do, however, have a well-documented account of his outward struggle against injustice in America. Among heroic American legacies, we can hardly find one more inspiring that modeled wisdom, sacrifice, bravery, principle, leveraged talent, and the love of God — a love for all people. This is a legacy worth cherishing and promoting as we have done.
This is not to say that we should minimize or obscure his faults. We need heroes (and villains!) who are like us — everyday people. Societies often do a poor job of this, making their heroes all good and their enemies all bad. America’s effort at forming lore is no exception to this failure. Given that unfaithfulness is a painful betrayal of a marriage relationship, we should make MLK’s shortcomings in this area accessible to aspiring public figures to learn from. That way they can more fully understand the unique adversities of public life and follow in the footsteps of King’s successes while making an effort to avoid repeating his stumbles. This can be done without discrediting King’s sterling public legacy.
It is said, that upon examining MLK’s assassinated body, the coroner declared that due to the stress of King’s public efforts his heart was worn well past his youthful age of 39 and appeared to be more like that of a 60-year-old individual. This is profound. If men could look into our hearts, what would they find? Would they find a heart that truly cared about the plight of people, especially marginalized people who are least likely to be cared for? Or would they find inside of a sanctimonious facade the heart of a fraud? Perhaps in his death, King preached his most powerful sermon — that of being a real one.
“I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children. But I want to be a good man. And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, ‘I take you in and I bless you, because you try. It is well that it was within thine heart.’”
— Martin Luther King Junior, 1968
