01/17/2023
🗣🗣🗣 [𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗧] --> ✨ ✨ “It’s that time of year again. It’s the time of year we are all inundated with the popular sound bites of Dr. King that serve to construct a limited narrative of his work. King continues to be reduced to a few excerpts from the “I Have a Dream’ speech when he delivered hundreds of other speeches, wrote several books, and has tons of letters, essays, and sermons that better tell the whole story.
So let’s play a game. Which of the quotes in this post were said by King? Which weren’t? Answers below
1- MLK, Letter From Birmingham Jail
2- Nah, that was Martin Luther
3- MLK, well sorta. There are a couple of versions of this quote floating, and we aren't sure ok King’s exact words. We do know; however, this quote holds the sentiment of the direct action campaign King was working on that that included legal recourse to force hospitals to end discrimination.
4- Nah. It went viral and was attributed to King after Osama bin Laden was killed, but he didn’t say it. I fell for it, too, and shared it on social media. It fit the popular narrative of King so we bought it.
5- MLK, his book "All Labor Has Dignity"
6- MLK, letter to Coretta Scott-King
7- MLK, speech at Bishop Charles Mason Temple of the Church of God in Christ in support of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike
8- Nah, somebody said he said it one day, and others echoed it, but there’s no record of him saying it.
9- MLK, Report to SCLC Staff