The right wing twists Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words to attack anti-racist education, focusing almost exclusively on MLK’s “I have a dream” declaration.
But Dr. King was a radical — in the most profound sense.
He denounced the Vietnam war, when it was politically risky, and did not mince words about U.S. racism: “The doctrine of white supremacy was imbedded in every textbook and preached in practically every pulpit. It became a structural part of the culture.”
On this holiday weekend, take a moment to read King in context, including his thoughts on Reconstruction, war, nuclear weapons, and police brutality.
Cartoon used with permission of artist Barry Deutsch.
Themes
Here are a few themes with quotes by King beyond the traditional narrative. There are many more.
On War
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death . . .
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. — Martin Luther King Jr., A Revolution of Values
On Nuclear Weapons
These days, some textbooks acknowledge Dr. King’s critique of the Vietnam War. However, King’s actions against nuclear weapons began a full decade earlier in the late 1950s. From 1957 until his death, through speeches, sermons, interviews, and marches, King consistently protested the use of nuclear weapons and war. King called for an end to nuclear testing, asking, “What will be the ultimate value of having established social justice in a context where all people, Negro and White, are merely free to face destruction by Strontium-90 or atomic war?” — Vincent Intondi in “The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb”
On Police Brutality
In a lesser-known part of his March on Washington speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” He described “the total pattern of economic exploitation under which Negroes suffer” in northern cities as a “system of internal colonialism” where police and the courts act as “enforcers.” — Jeanne Theoharis in The Atlantic
Labor
“The Labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Illinois AFL-CIO Convention, October 1965
Resources
Here are resources about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., beyond the traditional narrative.
Books
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King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Freedom Struggle Outside of the South by Jeanne Theoharis (New Press) A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis (Beacon Press) Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by James E. Ransome (Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.) Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Calkins Creek Books) The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr. Edited by Cornel West (Beacon Press) To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice by Michael Honey |
Lessons
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A Revolution of Values Text of speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Vietnam War, followed by three teaching ideas. Martin Luther King in New York City by Jeanne Theoharis and Jessica Lovaas. Reading, discussion questions, and activity about Martin Luther King’s activism in New York on labor rights, police brutality, housing, and education. The reading is from a chapter in King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Freedom Struggle Outside of the South. Teaching A People’s History of the March on Washington by Jessica Lovaas and Adam Sanchez. A lesson with case studies from Los Angeles; Birmingham, Alabama; Brooklyn; Detroit; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Albany, Georgia; and Cambridge, Maryland — to introduce students to the diverse struggles across the United States that were represented at the March on Washington. |
| Articles | |
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“Doing Justice to Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Young Children” by Amy Rothschild. Teaching for Change. “Dr. Martin Luther King on Reconstruction” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from The Radical King (Beacon Press). “Growing Up Racist in the Shadow of Dr. King” by David McGrath. Chicago Sun Times “Martin Luther King Jr.’s Challenge to Liberal Allies — and Why it Resonates Today” by Jeanne Theoharis. Washington Post “Martin Luther King Knew That Fighting Racism Meant Fighting Police Brutality” by Jeanne Theoharis. The Atlantic “Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Strong Friend of Labor” by Peter Cole. Chicago Sun Times “My Trip to the Land of Gandhi” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Stanford University MLK Research and Education Institute. “The Crisis in America’s Cities: Martin Luther King Jr. on What Sparked the Violent Urban Riots of the “Long Hot Summer” of 1967” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Atlantic. “The Limits of Master Narratives in History Textbooks: An Analysis of Representations of Martin Luther King” by Derrick P. Alridge. Civil Rights Teaching. “The Man Who Was a Fool, Sermon Delivered at the Detroit Council of Churches’ Noon Lenten Services” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Stanford University MLK Research and Education Institute “The Sanctification — and Sanitization — of Martin Luther King Jr.” by P. R. Lockhart. Vox. “W. E. B. Du Bois to Coretta Scott King: The Untold History of the Movement to Ban the Bomb” by Vincent Intondi. Zinn Education Project. “When Martin Luther King Jr. Came Up Against Chicago Racism” by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Truthout. |
Films and Clips
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At the River I Stand Documentary film on the African American sanitation workers’ 1968 fight for human dignity and a living wage in Memphis. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Beyond Vietnam” Dramatic reading of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” (1967) speech by Michael Ealy. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words 2020 segment of Democracy Now! |
This Day In History
Classes
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You Won’t Read About in Textbooks
On January 10, 2022, the Zinn Education Project hosted historian Jeanne Theoharis in conversation with Jesse Hagopian about the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. not found in textbooks and school curricula. As Theoharis notes in The Atlantic, “Critics of Black Lives Matter have held up King as a foil to the movement’s criticisms of law enforcement, but those are views that King himself shared. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, ‘We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.’ King understood that police brutality — like segregation — wasn’t just a southern problem.”
Below is a video recording of the class.
King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Freedom Struggle Outside of the South
On March 24, 2025, Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian spoke to historian Jeanne Theoharis about her latest book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South.
Below is a video recording of the class.
King of the North: Part II
On October 27, 2025, historian Jeanne Theoharis discussed her book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South, with renowned civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill. The class was moderated by Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian. This class was a follow-up conversation to a previous discussion between Theoharis and Hagopian about King of the North.
Below is a video recording of the class.
We should be telling about King and labor and how racism, imperialism, and anti-unionism combine to prevent worker rights. See for example, King, All Labor Has Dignity (Beacon Press, 2011); Going Down Jericho Road: the Memphis Strike, MLK’s Last Campaign (M. Honey, WW Norton, 2007); or To the Promised Land, MLK and the Fight for Economic Justice (Honey, Norton, 2017). VERY relevant to King’s legacy and unfinished agenda in the present.