The self-congratulatory popular account insists that Dr. King called on the nation to fully accept its own creed, and the walls came a-tumbling down. This conventional narrative is soothing, moving, and politically acceptable, and has only the disadvantage of bearing no resemblance to what actually happened.

Timothy B. Tyson
About This Quote

People don't like it when their heroes look like they made a mistake or that they didn't plan for everything to go as smoothly as possible. Everyone wants to be portrayed as the perfect person and everyone wants to be remembered as the greatest hero. Dr. King had his faults, but he was a very compassionate and compassionate man.

His work had flaws, but so do many others. He was not perfect but he was not a bad person or an evil man. He was a man of great passion and of great virtue who led the Civil Rights movement and changed the world for the better.

The story we all know about him is just not true.

Source: Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best. - Marilyn Monroe
  2. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott
  3. When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always. - Mahatma Gandhi
  4. Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having... - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  5. The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then... - Thomas Merton
More Quotes By Timothy B. Tyson
  1. If there is to be reconciliation, first there must be truth.
  2. The self-congratulatory popular account insists that Dr. King called on the nation to fully accept its own creed, and the walls came a-tumbling down. This conventional narrative is soothing, moving, and politically acceptable, and has only the disadvantage of bearing no resemblance to what actually...
  3. The Lord works through deeply flawed people, since He made so few of the other kind.
  4. It was like watching a community you thought you knew reveal itself as something else.
  5. In the years since his murder, we have transformed King into a kind of innocuous black Santa Claus.
Related Topics