"People are wrong to say that we have no heroes left.
Just as they have always been, they are all around us, choosing to do the right thing, no matter what.
Wishing us all a day of peace for Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2026."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
David Pepper points to the continuing revelance of Dr. King's words:
“For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'”
https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/injustice-anywhere-is-a-threat-to
"Here we are again. An overtly White nationalist Trump regime has ginned up fear of 'the Great Replacement,' 'wokeism,' immigrant violence, and anti-white discrimination (not to mention fear of changing your child’s gender and of women taking men’s jobs). High prices? No healthcare? Never mind. The regime is keeping you safe from these threats to white male dominance.
History may not repeat, but it does rhyme."
~ Jennifer Rubin
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/americans-should-understand-mlk-jrs
I remember the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., of course. I was a senior in high school when it happened. A senior in a small (some 25,000) but very wealthy oil town in south Arkansas, in a deep-South part of the state near the Louisiana border…. My father was a Louisianan whose parents moved to south Arkansas during the oil boom to find good-paying jobs.
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/1
The two white teens who were charged for the killing were exonerated by a jury of all white men. The whole town knew the three white teens were guilty. They bragged openly about what they had done.
This was the world in which I came of age.
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/4
Bloodshed piled on bloodshed.
A few months before Dr. King was murdered, two of my high school classmates, white teens, were charged with shooting and killing in cold blood a Black teen in our hometown. He was shot from their car as he walked on a road near his house. It was well known that a third white boy in my class was also in the car, but he was the son of an influential doctor and not charged.
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #Trump #ICE #Minneapolis
/3
"Celebrate a King, not a Trump."
~ William Kristol
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump
/17
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/celebrate-a-king-not-a-trump-mlk-jr-day-norway-denmark-greenland-nobel
"If you want to be terrified for America’s future, look at what Trump’s Homeland security thugs are doing in Minnesota.
But if you want to be inspired for America’s future, look at how ordinary Minnesotans refuse to be terrorized.
Minnesota, right now, is where Americans are bravely, resolutely, and boisterously living out King’s words in 'Letter From Birmingham Jail.'"
~ Marty Kelley
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #Minnesota #ICE #MaskedThugs #immigrants
/18
"There is a cruel irony that on the day we honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—a man awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work on racial and social justice, work that would cost him his life before he turned 40—we are confronted with headlines about that same Prize in a very different and demented context."
~ Elliot Kirschner
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #Trump #NobelPeacePrize
/19
https://elliotkirschner.substack.com/p/dr-king-vs-the-wanna-be-king
Jay Kuo highlights three parts of Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" "in light of what we’re seeing coming out of Minneapolis in 2026 on our own screens across the country. Once again, the government has turned its power upon peaceful protesters seeking to bring attention to brutal racist practices."
1. Nonviolence as power
2. White folks are not sitting on the sidelines
3. The strategy forward
"The Civil Rights Movement saved America from drowning. Now this country appears to be going under for the fateful third time. King and those involved in the Civil Rights Movement ushered in this country’s last, best chance to become a true democracy. This is the work that today, Trump, and Vance, Mike Johnson, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Pete Hegseth, and the tech bros. seek to dismantle."
~ Sherrilyn Ifill
"Dr. King did not merely seek a seat at the lunch counter; he sought to dismantle what he called the 'giant triplets': racism, materialism (capitalism), and militarism. He understood that these three forces were inextricably linked, forming the scaffolding of American society. ...
Dr. King’s ultimate call was for a 'radical redistribution of political and economic power.'”
~ Danielle Moody
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #racism #capitalism #EconomicElites
/25
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/the-radical-king-we-forgot-why-the
Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy by teaching Black History today and all year round. We recommend our collection of classroom-ready lesson plans for teaching with award-winning Black History films across the curriculum. For grades 4-12.
#MLK #MLKDay #BlackHistory #History #Histodons #Education #Edutooters #Movies
"Trump is the king of shamelessness, invulnerable to any kind of shame. …
Even as they lost their shame, the powerful in America—and elsewhere—have not lost their fear. What we need to do now is forget shame and work on fear and love. Their fear of our strength, our love for one another and for the legacy of change that followed King’s life and work."
~ Timothy Burke
"Dr. King did not merely seek a seat at the lunch counter; he sought to dismantle what he called the 'giant triplets': racism, materialism (capitalism), and militarism. He understood that these three forces were inextricably linked, forming the scaffolding of American society. ...
Dr. King’s ultimate call was for a 'radical redistribution of political and economic power.'”
~ Danielle Moody
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #racism #capitalism #EconomicElites
/25
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/the-radical-king-we-forgot-why-the
"Trump is the king of shamelessness, invulnerable to any kind of shame. …
Even as they lost their shame, the powerful in America—and elsewhere—have not lost their fear. What we need to do now is forget shame and work on fear and love. Their fear of our strength, our love for one another and for the legacy of change that followed King’s life and work."
~ Timothy Burke
"A sign that your religious tradition is probably a little bit racist is you are more focused on Martin Luther King's infidelities, which are real, and you are not focused on the many pastors who continue to abuse women and children and some men in your own churches. Yeah. that's a sign that you might be a racist religious tradition."
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteEvangelicals #WhiteSupremacy
/24
"Dr. King did not merely seek a seat at the lunch counter; he sought to dismantle what he called the 'giant triplets': racism, materialism (capitalism), and militarism. He understood that these three forces were inextricably linked, forming the scaffolding of American society. ...
Dr. King’s ultimate call was for a 'radical redistribution of political and economic power.'”
~ Danielle Moody
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #racism #capitalism #EconomicElites
/25
https://thelefthook.substack.com/p/the-radical-king-we-forgot-why-the
"I grew up in the white evangelical tradition. And the main thing I knew about Martin Luther King is that, yeah, he did the he did civil rights, blah, blah, blah, blah. But also he had a lot of affairs and he was very immoral. And that tells you all you need to know about the white evangelical tradition."
~ Holly Berkley Fletcher
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteEvangelicals #WhiteSupremacy
/23
"A sign that your religious tradition is probably a little bit racist is you are more focused on Martin Luther King's infidelities, which are real, and you are not focused on the many pastors who continue to abuse women and children and some men in your own churches. Yeah. that's a sign that you might be a racist religious tradition."
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteEvangelicals #WhiteSupremacy
/24
Jay Kuo highlights three parts of Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" "in light of what we’re seeing coming out of Minneapolis in 2026 on our own screens across the country. Once again, the government has turned its power upon peaceful protesters seeking to bring attention to brutal racist practices."
1. Nonviolence as power
2. White folks are not sitting on the sidelines
3. The strategy forward
"I grew up in the white evangelical tradition. And the main thing I knew about Martin Luther King is that, yeah, he did the he did civil rights, blah, blah, blah, blah. But also he had a lot of affairs and he was very immoral. And that tells you all you need to know about the white evangelical tradition."
~ Holly Berkley Fletcher
#MLK #MartinLutherKing #WhiteEvangelicals #WhiteSupremacy
/23
