King, A Life was written by Jonathan Eig was published in 2023. The book won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Basically, I feel this book low-key exposes King as a liar. The book may as well be titled: King, A Lie. Fam, this book had me captive for days after I finished it. Imma be real and get it out the way. King was a fuck-boy.
He was so full of contradiction. He plagiarized a lot of his writings in school and his sermons. Some plagiarisms were so apparent, it seems as if his professors and his colleagues looked the other way. He could talk exceptionally well, but his spelling and writing was years behind. Although he was sent to Connecticut to work on a tobacco farm to supplement his tuition, he was admittedly, a lazy worker. This was the first time he had to do physical labor and he spent most of his time laying in the fields.
Initially, he didn’t want to be a minister but he enjoyed the lifestyle his father provided. It seems that he feared his father but thought he could be a better man. King took the gifts and lifestyle his father provided, but he didn’t want to give his father the joy of following in his career as a preacher. Junior thought it was beneath him. He was a spoiled mama’s boy who couldn’t man up to his father. He enjoyed chatting for hours on the phone with his mother. Also, he didn’t want to ask his father for advice or assistance, but he readily took the material gifts and the used the gift of his father’s name and reputation when it benefitted him. At one issue, he told his mother he would rather present his case to the Supreme Court rather than ask his father.
Coretta Scott was living her Coretta Scott life doing her Coretta Scott things in Boston, Massachusetts. Coretta, like Martin, and most black people not attending an HBCU, received their higher education in the north because they could not attend white schools in the south. She was in school studying music and training to be a singer in Boston. She had her own dreams and desires, yet here comes this little nigga with his short ass lying and scheming. He was a serial cheater and in love with a white woman. He wanted to marry a white woman, but didn’t believe he would go far in his career being married to a white woman.
Just like a lot of black men that I don’t understand, especially in that era, how do they find white woman capable of love. How can you love the slave master’s wife? How can you love the companion of the devil? When he decided he couldn’t be as successful as he wanted with the white woman on his arm, he went with (in his opinion) the second-best option. He searched for a suitable black woman as a last resort, replacement model that he could eventually be satisfied with.
But still, he cheated on Coretta with Juanita his childhood friend who his family really wanted to marry almost right up until the wedding day. Neither Coretta’s parents nor King’s parents thought they should marry. Low key, it almost seemed she chose him because she was quickly approaching spinster age because she was a few years older. She was quieter and calmer, almost chilled demeanor than what him and his family preferred. She was too classy for him. But she was IMO too easily swayed.
She knew he was having relations with multiple women and she didn’t want to visit him in Atlanta. He wrote to Coretta to visit him Atlanta and implied that she was unappreciative and lacked confidence in him and told her not to worry because Daddy still loves you and he wouldn’t mistreat her. Finally, she did relent and visited him in Atlanta. She stayed with him in his parents’ house, while he stayed out all night with Juanita Sellers, a woman he’d proposed to before Coretta and maintained a relationship with right up until his wedding. Undeterred even by these flagrant acts, she agreed to marry him.
King wanted his wife to be a certain way, but he was attracted to a certain type of woman. He loved being a playboy and having multiple women and it did not stop when he was married. Everyone knew. He eventually knew the FBI was listening and he still kept on. And why wouldn’t he? His inner circles kept his secrets in order to keep the mission of black equality going forward. People have been keeping his secrets for years, Coretta included.
Martin Luther King, Jr. continued to spend most of his time with multiple women at the same time, often using his secretary and fellow activists to disguise where he was. Coretta often spent days even sometimes weeks alone raising the children. She admitted that he always confessed his transgressions to her because he would feel guilty. It seems as long as he admitted his indiscretions to her, she was willing to overlook them and remain his wife. According to Harry Belafonte, he was with Coretta because she was light skin with good hair and bourgeois and it was a good look for him with the community. However, it was not the type of woman MLK was attracted to. Per Coretta, he told her he expected to be the head of the household and even though marriage was a partnership, he doesn’t consider it a partnership between two equals.
I don’t believe he wanted this life. I do believe he wanted to be a leader because he thought of himself as an alpha male. He wanted to be in charge of something, but he thought he could do better than to be a minister like his father. However, once the Montgomery bus boycott began, he was almost thrust into the leader position. Like a stampede of black trauma and injustice overcame him and it was either allow them to push him forward, or be crushed to death in obscurity. This was a way for him to be seen more in public and continue his lifestyle of fancy suits and women.
Why is it a man can’t be a leader of people without being an adulterer? From mayors to preachers to civil rights leaders…they all seem to have a problem with monogamy. The easiest way to disclaim and destroy a man and his influence and authority over people is through the usage of sex and sexual claims. It’s why our government agents are trained to avoid or be alert in certain establishments and social settings. It’s why some celebrities are discredited and their lifetime work invalidated. Also, sex and corruption is why most politician careers are shortened. One of the easiest ways for intelligence agencies to gain access is through the use of sex. Women subvert using sex and men use friendship to plant seeds within. These informants are trained to learn your weakness (i.e., sex, fame, money, perceived power) for exploitation.
But, knowing all this insider truth provided a lot of light and depth to the leader of the non-violent protestor for equal and civil rights. I had to ask myself three questions:
- Does it change everything he was able to achieve?
- Did it hinder some of his achievement?
- Does it change how society, in particular, Black Americans perceived him?
So many decades of Dr. King being presented as this messiah savior of black people. This savior who was perfect in his non-violent protests. He was just a man. A lying, smoking, drinking, fornicating womanizer who went with the tide and allowed himself to be a martyr. The Movement was happening one way or another. Dr. King became the mouth-piece because of he was able voice the needs of Black America. He was able to use his voice to keep Black America centered in the struggle for the end of segregation and equal rights. Also, his dream was for his children to hold hands with white children. His dream was a much more palatable dream than Malcolm X and the NOI desire to live separately and without reliance of White People.
I do believe segregation would not have happened as quickly as it did without MLK. White America today, as they did then, scream for Black People to wait for equality. They still say we should wait for justice. Wait for everything while they speed forward in stripping us of respect, dignity, our livelihoods and even our lives. We shouldn’t protest, even peacefully. We shouldn’t get angry or show anger or frustration. White America has never waited for anything in history.
The Montgomery bus boycott happened 90 years after Emancipation. It was 90 years of sharecropping which is a step up from slavery, of not having the ability to vote, enter certain establishments, being subjected to lynching and outright killings for perceived or minor discretions. It was 90 years of using the back door, stepping off the sidewalk, being called every name but a child of God. Ninety years of only having a few months of education per year. They didn’t want advancement; they wanted to keep us either where we were or put us back into slavery if possible.
Here we are 70 years after the start of the Montgomery bus boycott and we are still facing housing discrimination, employment discrimination and we are killed in the street over minor traffic violations for all the world to see. Our deaths are displayed shown on television and the internet like legal government sanctioned snuff films. It is possible that without the actions of MLK and his team, the Montgomery Improvement Association, that we would just now be advocating for equal voting rights and integrated public areas instead of the separate, yet unequal laws that were in place before the Montgomery bus boycott.
I am sickened by the womanizing he did and I wonder if he had a sexual addiction. I am disappointed but not surprised that he did not practice what he preached. He was the head a movement based on Christianity and being-Christ-like. Yet, he was unable to resist most worldly vices, most notably, sexual temptation and lying. It’s a battle to retain respect for a man was unable to control himself in any way and behaved in such an unethical manner in his work but especially in his personal life. He preached of grace for sin, but not of the need to stop willful sinning and atonement. He never ceased lying and fornicating right up to his death.
Additionally, MLK should have known a person of his stature would be monitored and tracked by the federal government. Yet, he still continued his liaisons and trysts. I personally believed that he initially felt he was too big to be put down and later, he had made peace with his pending death either by the government or a die-hard racist who was against equal and civil rights for Black people.
In addtion to his changing views, I do believe his sexual indiscretions was a major portion of why he was assassinated. The FBI was monitoring his activity heavily and had made steps to discredit and undermine him. They planned to elevate other Black men to become a leader of civil rights once King was no longer effective. Black people were increasingly tired of the nonviolent movement. People like the NOI and The Black Panthers believed Black Men had a right to defend themselves by any means necessary and that we could police our own communities.
Therefore, I do believe his failure to act as a moral husband and a man hindered his achievement. Also, now that the de-classified reports are made public, it does change how society and specifically Black Americans perceive him. While I do believe society is more promiscuous and disclose sexual activities, etc. more publicly, most still expect religious leaders to abstain from adultery and sexual deviancy.
I do believe he was very naïve about how the system of white supremacy works. He was naïve because he was sheltered his entire life. King was raised in a middle-class environment where his parents made a life without depending on white people for their existence. He didn’t have to struggle much. It seems that he didn’t understand that you could not threaten white men, especially those in power, without some real kick-back. To threaten the President and to not understand that a friendly white man does not mean he is your friend. To not understand the power of the federal government in terms of surveillance and intelligence. His roots were based on religion, trust, love and acceptance from being rooted in the church unlike the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers.
He was the first black man to really push back against white society using the Presidential office along with the sympathy of northern whites. However, I believe the older and more street-wise Malcolm X knew and understood he was being surveilled by both NOI and the federal government. The NOI then had strong roots in the prison system and therefore understood the power of white authority and knew where the line was drawn. I believe the NOI goal was not white acceptance but more black strength, independence, and the ability to survive and thrive without reliance upon white society.
I believe had Martin held more street sense and less coddling like Malcolm X, he would have understood the dire circumstance he was in and acted more accordingly. More accordingly in terms of being more pro-active, using the youth and more knowledgeable activists, or even stepping aside. I don’t believe his sexual needs would have changed at all except I do believe he may have tried to be more discreet.
To this day, many Blacks hold the same outlook by appealing to their white “allies” and teaching them our trauma as if White America is somehow unaware of systematic racism, bias, and discrimination and the history of this country. Systemic racism is simply the following of the rules and policies generated by White People to keep Black people and other minority classes subservient to whites.
On one side, he was considered lax and naive. He wanted to win the white man’s friendship and understanding. However, whites were beginning to think he was ungrateful and felt they were pushed past their comfortable point much too fast. It seemed that while he made some gains, he was losing respect and awe he previously held. He spoke to his inner circle about backing down and stepping away from the movement. I don’t have any doubts that if he did step down and allowed others to assume the rein, he would likely lived to possibly take a political position as others have done and been able to age into seniority. Of course, his indiscretions would have been used against him. However, that was something he could have overcame as others have done.
I also believe that because Dr. King was swept in the movement and was not a planned leader, it contributed to his failure to adapt to change as the years went on. It seemed that he could not relate to all of Black America, especially younger Black America who felt he moved too slowly and catered too much to White America. Many younger Blacks felt the NAACP and Dr. King did not listen to them and were too uppity to relate to the poorer class. SCLC started to become more reactionary instead of proactive. There was no group who fell in between Malcolm X who was considered too radical, and MLK who was considered too lax and appealed to White America more than necessary to push the federal government for change on behalf of Black people.
Today, I think he is still hated and despised and it’s not because of his sexual indiscretions, but because of his fight for racial equality. A fight that 70 years later, we are still fighting for. Many of our gains are being rolled back or at a stand-still. We are still beaten, disrespected, and killed in the streets. We are still undergoing employment, housing, and voting discrimination. How much further back would we be in this country without the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Montgomery Improvement Association, the NAACP, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference?
In the end, I believe MLK did successfully push a lot of change for the greater good. I do look at King differently. Now it’s less as a perfect angel and more as a complete, yet troubled Black man who carried so much weight it killed him. I still celebrate him with my eyes open. He has earned and is still deserving of his federal holiday, his statues, and all the accolades.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Gladys and The Pips were dreaming of love in a world that is falling apart. In the end, even in the midst of his adulterous and acts and views of women, I believe that he still dreamed of a world where black people could be equals in this country that continues to reject us in every way they can.
Still Such a Thing – Gladys Knight & The Pips