Editing Martin Luther King

{{Infobox person
|image=Martin_Luther_King,_Jr..jpg
|name=Martin Luther King Jr.
|birth_name=Michael King Jr.
|birth_date={{birth date|1929|1|15}}
|birth_place=Atlanta, [[Georgia]], [[United States of America]]
|death_date={{death date and age|1968|4|4|1929|1|15}}
|death_place=Memphis, [[Tennessee]], [[United States of America]]
|death_cause=Assassination via gunshot by the [[FBI]]
}}
'''Martin Luther King Jr.''' (born '''Michael King Jr.'''; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was a Statesian Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the US civil rights movement from 1955 until the [[FBI]] assassinated him in 1968.<ref>{{News citation|title=Did J. Edgar Hoover Order the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr?|url=https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/01/17/did-j-edgar-hoover-order-the-assassination-of-martin-luther-king-jr/|newspaper=[[CovertAction Magazine]]}}</ref>

King's legacy has been absorbed into the [[Liberalism|liberal]] [[Capitalism|capitalist]] [[Bourgeoisie|establishment]] as a hero of nonviolence, yet his legacy as a critic of capitalism has been whitewashed by these capitalist powers.<ref>{{News citation|date=2021-01-18|title=Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Yet Another Critic of Capitalism!|url=https://speakoutsocialists.org/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-yet-another-critic-of-capitalism/}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|journalist=Andrew Wilkes|date=2022-01-13|title=MLK ROOTED HIS ANTI-CAPITALISM IN HIS CHRISTIAN MINISTRY|url=https://sojo.net/articles/mlk-rooted-his-anti-capitalism-his-christian-ministry}}</ref> As [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] famously said: <blockquote>“During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the “consolation” of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.”</blockquote>While King may not have been a [[Communism|communist]] revolutionary, he was a coalition-builder with widespread appeal to the poor and downtrodden in the United States, which made him a natural ally to communists and [[Socialism|socialists]] struggling for a more equitable society. The FBI even believed that he was a [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] with connections to [[Communist Party of the United States of America|CPUSA]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Federal Bureau of Investigation|year=1968|title=Martin Luther King, Jr: A Current Analysis|chapter=Formation of Southern Christian Leadership Conference|page=5|quote='King is a whole-hearted Marxist who has studied it [Marxism], believes in it and agrees with it, but because of his being a minister of religion, does not dare to espouse it publicly' [...] King has been described within the CPUSA as a true, genuine Marxist-Leninist|pdf=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10125-10133.pdf}}</ref> 

== See also ==

* [[Quotes:Martin Luther King Jr.|Quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]]

== References ==
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[[Category:Victims of assassination]]