There was once a tea party in Boston.....
The British did not allow Colonials legal redress of their grievances, as the 1960's era United States did, hence the Tea Party and ultimately the Revolutionary War.
I believe that Dr. Masugi was meaning to suggest that Dr. King and his followers could have addressed many of their concerns via existing legal channels without needing to resort to illegal means, something that would have endeared him to Conservatives far more.
It did for white people only, hence the sit-ins. When you can't vote, when the legal system is stacked against you, and when the "local notables" consider you just barely worth more than a dog, you have to make your stand outside of the system.
In the south of the 1950's? Where the Klan and Jim Crow were at their height of power? Where even the U.S. Justice Department could not guarantee that the laws of the U.S. would be enforced by local coutts? Those legal channels?
Dr. King wasn't perfect, but then again neither were Washington or Lincoln. In fact, the last perfect man got nailed to a cross 2000 years ago. But Dr. King was a leader at a time when it was very dangerous to be a leader in the black community. He was a leader when it meant that the whole force of state and local government would fall on his head for getting out of line. He took his stand and literally changed the world for blacks in this country, North and South. He should be respected for that.
And Dr. Masugi seems to forget that Lincoln and Washington lost their holidays under Richard Nixon, long before the King holiday was established.