One of the the things you won't read, see, or hear this MLK day - or any MLK day - is any detailed record of the thousands of speeches and articles he produced during his thirteen-odd year career as an activist.
Why? Powerful organizations and individuals - led by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI - tried and failed to shut King up. Why is is the voice of King - a national demigod - silent now?
One reason is that nearly all of his words are copyrighted, and closely held for profit by the Board of Directors of "Martin Luther King Jr. Inc." - a foundation that produces millions of dollars per year for King's descendants, and has aggressively litigated against any who in its view threaten its control and ability to profit from King-related materials.
Another reason is that King was kind of - well - kind of a commie, at least by present-day American standards. He devoted the later, tougher years of his life struggling for what he liked to call "economic justice" - by which, I suspect, he probably didn't mean hiring top lawyers for copyright suits.
The forces that have silenced King threaten to silence and strangle many other critical aspirations in our society.
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