Eric Starvo Galt, Porn Mogul

In one chapter of his immensely troubled life, James Earl Ray tried to make his name as a Mexican porn director named Eric Starvo Galt. Frustrated with a lack of success and jilted by a lover, he came back to the USA, and within a couple years, had killed Martin Luther King Jr.

Lets say for one reason or another, he is successful enough to stay in the porn buisness - aside from MLK living past his OTL assasination, what buttefflies might we see, for both James Earl Ray and MLK, to say nothing of the world.
 
Someone else shoots MLK, more than likely he was pushing for what at the time was radical reform in a place that simply did not want to hear it.

King's politics after his death are going to make a huge difference on his legacy, while probably having more of an impact on African-American politics.
 
Someone else shoots MLK, more than likely he was pushing for what at the time was radical reform in a place that simply did not want to hear it.

I wouldn't say that an assassination was guaranteed, although a few attempts almost certainly were. Just look at how many plots Fidel Castro has survived.

King living could help curb some of the excesses of the Black Power movement, but he would probably also start to discredit himself among radical circles (by the end, both black militants and white ultraleftists were already considering him an Uncle Tom for taking it slow and trying to reform the system rather than smash it). This might paradoxically improve his image in white America - imagine if a rogue member of the Nation of Islam tried to shoot him, for instance.

Personally I think a TL where MLK survived would lead to slightly relaxed racial tensions down the line. Although I doubt it'd have an absolutely transformative effect on American history, it would certainly help.

I don't see him ever running for office or doing anything other than activism.
 
I don't know enough about the porn industry to say if a powerful publishing company based in Mexico would have any serious butterflies or not. Anyone else more of a specialist in that area?
 
I don't know enough about the porn industry to say if a powerful publishing company based in Mexico would have any serious butterflies or not. Anyone else more of a specialist in that area?

How many self proclaimed pornographic experts are there?

Incidentally, I wonder how he'll deal with his initial lack of success in Memphis (If that all isn't butterflied away)
 
How many self proclaimed pornographic experts are there?

The history of pornography is brought up more often than one would think. Hell, maybe I'll study it just so we have an expert on site :p.

Also, apparently at 39, King had the heart of a 60 year old man. Not sure how long until that would cause problems.
 

Vivisfugue

Banned
Galt? That's the porn name he chose for himself? As if my esteem for JER couldn't get any lower he turns out to be a Randroid...
 
I wouldn't say that an assassination was guaranteed, although a few attempts almost certainly were. Just look at how many plots Fidel Castro has survived.

King living could help curb some of the excesses of the Black Power movement, but he would probably also start to discredit himself among radical circles (by the end, both black militants and white ultraleftists were already considering him an Uncle Tom for taking it slow and trying to reform the system rather than smash it). This might paradoxically improve his image in white America - imagine if a rogue member of the Nation of Islam tried to shoot him, for instance.

Personally I think a TL where MLK survived would lead to slightly relaxed racial tensions down the line. Although I doubt it'd have an absolutely transformative effect on American history, it would certainly help.

I don't see him ever running for office or doing anything other than activism.

Unless MLK radicalizes. IIRC, he was getting pretty frustrated. And some of his last speeches get pretty heated. (You don't hear those on MLK Day).

Concievably, a surviving MLK makes race relations worse. Imagine a speech, something like "We Need Reality, Not Dreams", where he renounces his pacifist philosophy and calls for full-on race war and revolution, and tells the crowd on the Mall to march on the White House and Congress.

(For added irony, butterfly another assassination, and Malcolm Shabazz becomes the great peacemaker...)
 
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