Anonymous wrote:
Welp, he was assassinated. Anyone who thinks critically can put 2 and 2 together and understand he was not well liked. One thing MLK,Jr had going for him was that he promoted peaceful protest, unlike Malcolm X his contemporary, who scared the hell out of white folks, lol. Both were assassinated, as were many black people who dared push for equality.



Okay, but by your logic JFK wasn't popular either.

I agree with you, OP. I wish children would learn the truth of history in school. The good, bad and ugly.

He had his detractors, too. Many people did not want a Catholic president.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely put this into context. We celebrate MLK Jr and John Lewis but at the time authorities, law enforcement, politicians and a large segment of the white population hated them. They persevered despite the attacks and hatred. I think this is what we should be teaching our kids. Standing up for what they believe in the face of adversity and doing the right thing isn’t always easy or popular.

This and being willing to risk your life for others to have equality.

+1. He is loved today but was despised and hated in his day. That is what made his peaceful protest march even more impactful because in the face of hate she still marched and ultimately he paid for it with his life.

This is the usual whitewashing of history.
If he or his points of view were universally popular, his leadership wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:I'd definitely talk about it with my kid, and I might send a politely worded note to the teacher, perhaps with links to a few resources about how MLK was viewed at the time. And maybe make the ultimate point: this would be a good time to talk to the kids about how sometimes doing the right thing isn't popular, but it's still the right thing. Rather than making it a criticism, frame it as a positive suggestion for deepening the curriculum.

Agree w/this suggestion. King was definitely viewed as a radical, including by the FBI. Here's a passage that showed his thoughts later on. He and Malcolm X's views were moving closer towards the end of his life. This was written in the year prior to his assassination:

"In his final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, originally published in 1967, King wrote that “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans.”

He continued: “These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/mlk-more-radical-than-we-remember

The article you posted doesn’t fully support your point. It indicates that when his message was one of peaceful non-violent resistance to racism, his approval rating was about 50%. But when he moved to advocating a larger platform of Socio-economic equality (labor rights, government assistance to the poor, and opposition to the Vietnam War), his approval rating dropped to 25%.
Part of the problem is that we’ve frozen him in time in 1963 and the I Have a Dream speech. How many people remember him as a labor activist and anti-war activist? When you see the blistering nastiness with which people reference unions on this forum, or remember how John Kerry (a veteran!) got raked over the coals for his eventual opposition to the Vietname War....it’s clear that Americans are largely supportive of formal equality but much less omfortable with taking actions to actively dismantle racism and systems of oppression.

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely put this into context. We celebrate MLK Jr and John Lewis but at the time authorities, law enforcement, politicians and a large segment of the white population hated them. They persevered despite the attacks and hatred. I think this is what we should be teaching our kids. Standing up for what they believe in the face of adversity and doing the right thing isn’t always easy or popular.

4

+1

They are heroes for standing up to injustice. The bad people who were perpetrating and benefiting from these injustices absolutely did not like them. The same kinds of people attacked the Capitol on Jan 5th. Teach her the truth.

Anonymous wrote:Welp, he was assassinated. Anyone who thinks critically can put 2 and 2 together and understand he was not well liked. One thing MLK,Jr had going for him was that he promoted peaceful protest, unlike Malcolm X his contemporary, who scared the hell out of white folks, lol. Both were assassinated, as were many black people who dared push for equality.

Okay, but by your logic JFK wasn't popular either.

I agree with you, OP. I wish children would learn the truth of history in school. The good, bad and ugly.

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely put this into context. We celebrate MLK Jr and John Lewis but at the time authorities, law enforcement, politicians and a large segment of the white population hated them. They persevered despite the attacks and hatred. I think this is what we should be teaching our kids. Standing up for what they believe in the face of adversity and doing the right thing isn’t always easy or popular.

This and being willing to risk your life for others to have equality.

Welp, he was assassinated. Anyone who thinks critically can put 2 and 2 together and understand he was not well liked. One thing MLK,Jr had going for him was that he promoted peaceful protest, unlike Malcolm X his contemporary, who scared the hell out of white folks, lol. Both were assassinated, as were many black people who dared push for equality.

I would definitely put this into context. We celebrate MLK Jr and John Lewis but at the time authorities, law enforcement, politicians and a large segment of the white population hated them. They persevered despite the attacks and hatred. I think this is what we should be teaching our kids. Standing up for what they believe in the face of adversity and doing the right thing isn’t always easy or popular.

I'd definitely talk about it with my kid, and I might send a politely worded note to the teacher, perhaps with links to a few resources about how MLK was viewed at the time. And maybe make the ultimate point: this would be a good time to talk to the kids about how sometimes doing the right thing isn't popular, but it's still the right thing. Rather than making it a criticism, frame it as a positive suggestion for deepening the curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:I think you should talk about it.

With whom?

I think you should pay a visit to Montgomery AL and get some schooling on the civil rights movement. Check out the Equal Justice Initative Museum

I think you should talk about it.

Just a minor vent:

I am listening to my 3rd grader’s class and the teacher is discussing Martin Luther King Jr. A lot of what she is saying is great, but she said that Martin Luther King was loved by the country and the world because he used peaceful means to protest.

This just isn’t true and it’s a myth I wish would go away. He was probably the least popular person in the country at the time. I am going to discuss this briefly with my child because I want him to know that doing the right thing is often unpopular.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/04/04/martin-luther-king-jr-50-years-assassination-donald-trump-disapproval-column/482242002/

That’s all, have a lovely long weekend.