Gary Younge on Martin Luther King

'Forty years after King's death, the ability of America to both mythologise the man and marginalise his meaning is all too cruelly apparent. His symbolic likeness is effortlessly incorporated into America's self-image as the land of relentless progress. Meanwhile, his legacy of struggling against poverty and imperialism is undermined with every passing day. Had he lived he would most certainly have been loathed. In order for America to love him, he first had to die.'

Full article here, which also serves a superb rejoinder to those 'decent leftists' who attack Rev Jeremiah Wright as 'hate-filled'. Gary Younge is speaking in London in July on black America and Barack Obama at Marxism. More on King here and Obama here.