were discriminatory. That is to say, he advocated following some laws but breaking others,
and found a need to reconcile this contradiction and he does so in this letter.
King’s words are dated, perhaps a good sign of how far the U.S. has come in race relations in
the 50 years that he wrote, in spite of any recent indication to the contrary in recent U.S.
politics. If you’ve never read anything by King, I recommend his letter, if nothing else to get
a sense of the courage and moral fortitude of the man.
King’s original typed version of the letter is provided courtesy of the Stanford University
archives. http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/undecided/630416-019.pdf
Happy Martin Luther King Day to everyone in the U.S.A. , well, to everyone everywhere.
Carl Kruse
P.S I hear some celebrate a home-brewed and half-baked “Robert E. Lee” day in lieu of
MLK day, something I do not understand.