The perils of twisting Martin Luther King's words

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Nearly 55 years after his assassination, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s vision for a colorblind America still resonates from what the civil rights leader called “the mountaintop.”

“I have a dream,” King said on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C. “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

But since passage of the King holiday in 1983, right-wing, conservative leaders have distorted King’s vision of a colorblind society for their own political self-interest that often clashes with the very ideals King espoused.

Hajar Yazdiha, a USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences assistant professor of sociology, has seen the consequences of the misuse of King’s words play out from the halls of Congress to local school board meetings.

The misuse of King’s words, Yazdiha writes, “are too often attempts to weaponize his memory against the multicultural democracy of which King could only dream.”

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Howard Manly

Race + Equity Editor

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a cheering crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 27, 1965. Bettmann/Getty Images

How the distortion of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s words enables more, not less, racial division within American society

Hajar Yazdiha, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Conservatives have a long history of contorting the words of Martin Luther King Jr. to further political goals at odds with King’s vision of a colorblind society.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

‘The most dangerous Negro’: 3 essential reads on the FBI’s assessment of MLK’s radical views and allies

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As Martin Luther King Jr. gained national prominence, the FBI launched several investigations to prove that King and his radical allies were communist sympathizers and a danger to America.

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