Martin Luther King’s hate mail eerily resembles criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement

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54. Bingo!

All one has to do is search photos of who took part in that labor march. And that's what drew Dr. King to Memphis the day after he received the Nobel Prize, in solidarity with the black sanitation workers who had no voice.

He was connecting with new African nations throughout the '50s and into the '60s, upon their invitations, knowing fully well they'd join him in the fight against the colonialism there and racism here. Thoughts of his on tape in 1960 after visiting Nigeria and other countries , "I just returned from Africa a little more than a month ago and I had the opportunity to talk to most of the major leaders of the new independent countries of Africa and also leaders of countries that are moving toward independence. They are familiar with it and they are saying in no uncertain terms that racism and colonialism must go for they see the two are as based on the same principle, a sort of contempt for life, and a contempt for human personality." Wow!

Sure, the Poor People's March was a multiracial effort, but Dr. King was galvanized by the urban riots during the mid '60s to launch the march to Occupy D.C. "Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena. They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse. Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking. But most of all, alienated from society and knowing that this society cherishes property above people, he is shocking it by abusing property rights..."

On Vietnam, "Be non-violent toward Bull Connor;when I was saying, Be non-violent toward [Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff] Jim Clark. There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, Be non-violent toward Jim Clark, but will curse and damn you when you say, 'Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children.'"