Dr. Martin Luther King

I believe that history has re-shaped the truth behind Dr. Martin Luther King’s life as a leader of the anti-racism and anti-segregation movement. Although he had been given many awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means, obviously after his sudden death, many of his radical ideas were omitted simply because they are not what the politicians wanted the public to know.
I think Taylor Branch was right in saying that “our nation has slept for decades under the spell of myths grounded in race.” King had protested on the deliberate discrimination of blacks by policies that promote the whites. What King said in his speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” is to put equality among blacks and whites in the forefront of every US citizen. He may have gained awards but his more radical ideas were forgotten or were left behind, encapsulated in myths that were more appealing. And people only accepted what were told to them.
An example of this deliberate downplaying of King’s radical ideas is written in Branch’s article. Blacks were recruited and sent to the Vietnam War together with the whites yet the ones who gained more popularity were the whites. The blacks were set aside. White supremacy is very evident. Again, this is the result of the dominating rule of racial discrimination.

Work Cited:
“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” 4 May 1999. 9 April 2008. < http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html>
Branch, Taylor. “The Last Wish of Martin Luther King.” 6 April 2008. 9 April 2008. < http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/opinion/06branch.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin>