People just literally don't know They've erased the 60s and 70s, despite the incredible amount of mass media documentation of the era, completely in their mindshttps://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1340639243891322884 …
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There were, then as now, quite a few Black conservatives, especially pastors, who spoke against MLK and told him not to march *because it would be provocative* That he was "sowing discord and division" that would bring more trouble to the Black community
The irony here is that these Black conservatives -- their publications and op-eds and speeches -- were largely forgotten by history because the passage of the Civil Rights Act proved them wrong But then white historians took their words and put them in MLK's mouth
MLK wasn't a registered Republican, never voted for a Republican, according to his wife, spoke out in a presidential campaign for the only time in his life *against* a Republican (Barry Goldwater) But today's GOP have made a meme out of "MLK was a Republican"
Because there were Black Republican loyalists who *opposed MLK and the Civil Rights movement* (his dad, MLK Sr., talked about having been one of them before JFK stood up for his son and got him out of prison)
And in a shockingly perverse revisionism they've made a composite character out of the actual person Martin Luther King, Jr. and his most outspoken opponents within the Black community The person they imagine MLK to be would've been a concern troll against the bus boycotts
it entirely reframed all of history for me when i finally understood that dissensus, diversity, and disagreement are just characteristic features of all times all of which get elided when we talk as if "[Society] did [Thing]"
some people did [thing], some people fought against [thing], this whole group of people were actually fighting about [other thing], etc etc etc etc
King's tactics were provocative, and white people mostly didn't approve of them. But the Civil Rights Movement's *goals* were absolutely popular with white northerners.
The popularity was fairly surface level, and lasted only as long as the focus was on de jure segregation and disenfranchisement in the South, and not de facto segregation in the North. But the cause of voting rights and civil rights in the South was never unpopular in the North.
I've had someone literally tell me King got all the necessary permits for the March and that's why the Civil rights movement was different from people blocking traffic with protests the last ten years.
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