The Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr wasn’t just a brilliant orator and organizer. He was also a groundbreaking thinker.

What Martin Luther King Jr Really Thought About Riots

Joe Biden is trying to use Martin Luther King’s legacy to make the case for a law-and-order crackdown on protests. But King drew a distinction between violence against people and violence against property — and he viewed riots as the product of an unjust social order.

Martin Luther King Jr Dreamed of a Society Without Poverty. We Can Achieve It.

Martin Luther King Jr once said that there’s “nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen.” Decades after his assassination, we can realize his vision of an economically just society.

Restoring King

There is no figure in recent American history whose memory is more distorted than Martin Luther King Jr.

Restoring King

There is no figure in recent American history whose memory is more distorted than Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr’s Forgotten 1962 Speech on Civil Rights Unionism

MLK regarded progressive unions as bulwarks of the civil rights movement. In this rousing 1962 speech to the National Maritime Union, he linked the democratic struggles of workers and black people and ended by quoting the “beautiful words” of Eugene Debs.

Martin Luther King Understood Solidarity

Jonathan Eig’s new Martin Luther King biography stirs exhilaration and visceral pain at the unexpected triumphs and vicious violence that King and the freedom movement endured. But it largely leaves out a key piece of King’s legacy: his commitment to labor.

Martin Luther King Jr

MLK Day Should Be About Continuing Dr. King’s Radical Project

On Martin Luther King Jr Day, rather than embracing a sanitized, deradicalized King, we remember a committed foe of not only racism, but economic inequality and militarism.

What MLK Actually Thought About Israel and Palestine

Some try to paint Martin Luther King Jr as an unswerving supporter of Israel. They're wrong.

The Evolution of Dr. King

By the end of his life, Martin Luther King Jr was an avowed socialist.

The Evolution of Dr. King

By the end of his life, Martin Luther King Jr was an avowed socialist.

The Promised Land Is Still Not Here

The Left struggles to speak with the kind of moral clarity Martin Luther King exemplified — but that shouldn't stop us from trying.

Martin Luther King’s Revolution

50 years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr defied his advisers and declared his opposition to the Vietnam War. Liberal supporters immediately abandoned him.

Selma and the Struggle

Selma isn’t just a great movie. Its sense of history and justice is deeply politicizing.

When the FBI Targeted the Poor People’s Campaign

An FBI scholar argues that recently unearthed surveillance documents aren’t proof of anything about Martin Luther King. They do, however, show how the bureau tried to destroy the Poor People’s Movement.

To MLK, Individual Greatness Could Be Found in Attacking Injustice

Martin Luther King argued that the desire for individual greatness marred US society. But he also believed that desire could be channeled into collective action, with everyone acting as “drum majors” for justice against the “triple evils" of racism, capitalism, and militarism.

When King Was Dangerous

Martin Luther King Jr is remembered as a person of conscience who only carefully broke unjust laws. But his militant challenges to state authority place him in a much different tradition: radical labor activism.

Remember: The FBI Declared War on and Tried to Destroy Martin Luther King

In all the celebrations of Martin Luther King’s life, we tend to forget something very important about our country’s greatest civil rights leader: when he was alive, institutions of the US state, especially the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, constantly harassed, surveilled, and attempted to destroy King.

Martin Luther King Knew That There’s Nothing Peaceful About Nonviolence If You’re Doing It Right

Establishment pundits love to cite Martin Luther King as a way to delegitimize militant protests and shame unruly protesters. But King wasn’t a proponent of passive, compliant protest — to him, nonviolent action was about forging a powerful collective force that could coerce ruling elites into conceding to demands for justice.