Don’t think that negates his key role in ending segregation by his activism and oratory. It was not necessary that a myth of superior character needed to follow but it was almost inevitable.
Absolutely, he played a key role for the advancement of Civil Rights, but the myth that followed and was perpetuated by the King family is truly incredible. And we can’t blame Hoover for bugging King, nor Bobby Kennedy for signing the warrant.
King’s director was Stanley David Levinson, a Communist Party USA member and KGB asset.
He was his attorney, fund-raiser, speech-writer, organizer, PR officer, treasurer and financier.
Levinson, known as the Assistant Chief, did ALL of the following for MLK:
1. He was his principal advisor and legal counsel
2. He conducted fund raisers for King and the SCLC
3. He researched, wrote and presented speech material for King
4. He scheduled and rejected public appearances for King
5. He was the Asst. Treasurer of the SCLC
6. He was financing the SCLC through the CPUSA
7. He hired other CPUSA members as organizers and secretaries for King
8. He directed what King was to say or and was not say in public
9. He both edited and wrote articles and sections of books that King presented as his own
Nearly all of King’s top advisors, speech writers, organizers, and personal assistants, were specifically recruited from within the ranks of the CPUSA, often by Levison himself.
Many of King’s loyal supporters were either Communist Party USA members or supporters at various times of their careers: Wyatt T. Walker, Ralph D. Abernathy who later defected from the Soviet KGB front, the World Peace Council, Stoney Cook (limited contacts), Rev. Willie Barrows and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
King did necessary work to try and peacefully dismantle segregation when there were those who just wanted to turn to violence. He was smart and he knew violence would backfire. I am sickened if half of this is true. You don’t expect leaders to be angels but this is bad.