For several years Dr. King and his work were lauded and praised to
the skies by the US corporate media, he was awarded a Nobel Prize, and
enjoyed friendly access to the White House. This was because US ruling
circles endorsed the dismantling of southern Jim Crow as necessary to
America’s image around the world and its conflict with the Soviet Union,
which was actively aiding liberation movements in Africa, Asia and
Latin America. But in April 1967 Dr. King directly, explicitly and
unmistakably confronted and denounced the current genocidal US war in
Vietnam, which would eventually kill 3 million Vietnamese.
King accurately predicted further US colonial wars in Asia, Africa
and the Americas in the coming decades, and observed that economic and
social justice inside the US were unobtainable amid the wars needed to
preserve US global empire. Instantly the entire apparatus of US media
turned upon him, and from one of the most admired Americans he became
one of the most despised. As Cornel West observes, most of the
institutions and people writing checks and commemorating his death this
week would not allow the Dr. King of his final year, or a Dr. King of
today at their podiums, their pulpits or on their airwaves.
-- Bruce A. Dixon, "Another MLK Anniversary, Another Gaza Massacre Ignored by the Black Political Class" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).