WI: Martin Luther King survives

Wallet

Banned
What if Dr. King wasn't assassinated 50 years ago in Memphis? How would he effect the labor, environmental, anti-apartheid, pro busing, black militant, anti war movements? Or the crack/AIDs epidemics or riots in the 90s?

This has a lot of ripple effects. Butterflys mean Bobby Kennedy survives, having dramatic effects on the 1968 election.

RFK is probably elected. I know Humphrey had the nominated promised to him, but I feel like Bobby gets it at the convention. He almost certainly puts King in some government position.
 
What are the chances MLK lives long enough to be a “bad guy”? Let’s say he’s an active proponent in the War on Drugs and his actions are tied to the mass incarceration epidemic, or he steps on the toes of people trying to help AIDS patients, or he becomes a toned-down Fred Phelps. I don’t bring up Phelps by accident - in the 1970s, Phelps was a civil rights attorney known both for being very effective and for being a complete bastard. He was basically the Dr. House of the Civil Rights era before he went off the deep end. Is there any chance MLK does the same?

Also, I understand MLK wasn’t exactly the picture of health - he chain-smoked and caroused with women despite being married. One possible butterfly is that MLK, not Magic Johnson, becomes the first high-profile heterosexual AIDS patient.
 
He’d be a lot more controversial to the white mainstream than he became in death- this had already begun to play out in the last couple of years of his life with his opposition to Vietnam and Poor People’s Campaign causing white people to turn on him. He’d still be respected and an icon to many though.
 
He’d be a lot more controversial to the white mainstream than he became in death- this had already begun to play out in the last couple of years of his life with his opposition to Vietnam and Poor People’s Campaign causing white people to turn on him. He’d still be respected and an icon to many though.

Might be vindicated in retrospect on the Vietnam issue. I've heard people across the political spectrum bash that war and the way the draft was handled. Economic conservatives wouldn't like his support for welfare.

His popularity might be diminished some on the left if he doesn't support abortion. I can also see him being skeptical at best on liberalized attitudes toward homosexuality although I can't see him going full Fred Phelps. He was the type to appeal to people's better nature and promote a positive vision of the future. Condemning others wasn't his style.
 
Might be vindicated in retrospect on the Vietnam issue. I've heard people across the political spectrum bash that war and the way the draft was handled. Economic conservatives wouldn't like his support for welfare.

His popularity might be diminished some on the left if he doesn't support abortion. I can also see him being skeptical at best on liberalized attitudes toward homosexuality although I can't see him going full Fred Phelps. He was the type to appeal to people's better nature and promote a positive vision of the future. Condemning others wasn't his style.

Hard to say conclusively how he would have come down on the abortion issue- Coretta was pretty strongly pro-choice and he accepted an award from Planned Parenthood in 66 I believe, but he never really talked about the issue AFAIK. My guess is that if he opposed it at first he wouldn't be too vocal about it and would eventually come around to the pro-choice position.
 
Also, I understand MLK wasn’t exactly the picture of health - he chain-smoked and caroused with women despite being married. One possible butterfly is that MLK, not Magic Johnson, becomes the first high-profile heterosexual AIDS patient.
I can't stress enough how bad his health was. After his autopsy, one of the doctor's remarked, "he has the heart of a 60 year old man." That being said I find it very very difficult to see MLK living past 60. Hell, I'd be amazed if he made it in to 1980.
 
RFK is probably elected. I know Humphrey had the nominated promised to him, but I feel like Bobby gets it at the convention. He almost certainly puts King in some government position.

That first quoted sentence strikes me as wishful thinking. Given the animosity between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy, I suspect Johnson would have done everything he could to ensure Kennedy did not get the nomination. That said, I could see King cutting a not-quite deal with the devil, supporting Humphrey in exchange for a policy-making post (of course, there would never be a quid pro quo, and most assuredly not on paper). Not sure what that post would be, apart from (at the time) HEW since King wouldn't fit any of the major cabinet posts (State, Treasury, Justice, Defense). Also it's difficult to imagine him running Commerce, Labor, or Interior.

Assuming (way out on a limb here) that Nixon does not win and that King gets HEW, I could see the period from 1969 to 1973 at a minimum as a continuation of the Great Society, only significantly more prevalent in its effects.
 

Wallet

Banned
That first quoted sentence strikes me as wishful thinking. Given the animosity between Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy, I suspect Johnson would have done everything he could to ensure Kennedy did not get the nomination. That said, I could see King cutting a not-quite deal with the devil, supporting Humphrey in exchange for a policy-making post (of course, there would never be a quid pro quo, and most assuredly not on paper). Not sure what that post would be, apart from (at the time) HEW since King wouldn't fit any of the major cabinet posts (State, Treasury, Justice, Defense). Also it's difficult to imagine him running Commerce, Labor, or Interior.

Assuming (way out on a limb here) that Nixon does not win and that King gets HEW, I could see the period from 1969 to 1973 at a minimum as a continuation of the Great Society, only significantly more prevalent in its effects.
King as Director of FBI? He'd get rid of Hoover, who by the late 60s all of Washington was getting sick of. Also, he'd be able to enforce civil rights laws.
 
Dr. King certainly was a man of great charisma. He got more controversial in the mid-to-late 60's (who didn't) however I could quite easily see him being validated after Vietnam was considered by majority of Americans as a failure. If it worked for Muhammad Ali, definitely Dr. King would be exonerated by the public eye, and as a great communicator and orator he could use the failure of Vietnam to further himself as a political leader and further promote civil rights. I believe that Dr. King would be seen by those more centre-right on the political aisle as a bridge between the mainstream white society and the more marginalized black society. A diplomat if you will. I definitely don't see any President MLK Jr., but Senator by the 80's doesn't seem too improbable (though representative from a black majority seat in Georgia seems more likely. Wouldn't win the Senate race in Georgia, but would still want to represent his locals.)
 
Dr. King certainly was a man of great charisma. He got more controversial in the mid-to-late 60's (who didn't) however I could quite easily see him being validated after Vietnam was considered by majority of Americans as a failure. If it worked for Muhammad Ali, definitely Dr. King would be exonerated by the public eye, and as a great communicator and orator he could use the failure of Vietnam to further himself as a political leader and further promote civil rights. I believe that Dr. King would be seen by those more centre-right on the political aisle as a bridge between the mainstream white society and the more marginalized black society. A diplomat if you will. I definitely don't see any President MLK Jr., but Senator by the 80's doesn't seem too improbable (though representative from a black majority seat in Georgia seems more likely. Wouldn't win the Senate race in Georgia, but would still want to represent his locals.)

The bigger issue is on the FBI though, especially since he was being harassed by this point though I reckon that after the Vietnam failure, maybe something would happen to bring backlash against the FBI
 
I could see King running for public office down in Georgia, maybe even achieving another Civil Rights milestone by becoming the first Black governor of a Southern state since Reconstruction, sometime in the 1980s. After that..I could maybe see a Presidential run. While he may be more socially conservative then some Democrats, (I'm pretty sure he'd be Pro-Life, maybe even anti-Gay Marriage when that issue comes up.), I imagine he'd remain on the economic Left. He was pretty darn close to an outright Socialist, and he'd probably remain so. I could also see him advocating hard for immigration reform and the like. Even if he doesn't become President, I could definitely see a Democrat making him Attorney General sometime in the late-80s/early-90s.
 

samcster94

Banned
I could see King running for public office down in Georgia, maybe even achieving another Civil Rights milestone by becoming the first Black governor of a Southern state since Reconstruction, sometime in the 1980s. After that..I could maybe see a Presidential run. While he may be more socially conservative then some Democrats, (I'm pretty sure he'd be Pro-Life, maybe even anti-Gay Marriage when that issue comes up.), I imagine he'd remain on the economic Left. He was pretty darn close to an outright Socialist, and he'd probably remain so. I could also see him advocating hard for immigration reform and the like. Even if he doesn't become President, I could definitely see a Democrat making him Attorney General sometime in the late-80s/early-90s.
What about House member from said state???
 
What about House member from said state???
How does this rough timeline sound?:

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In 1986, he gets elected to the House, from a Black-majority seat in Georgia. Maybe even works alongside John Lewis, if he still goes into politics ITTL.

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In 1990, he runs for one of Georgia's Senate seats, and wins.

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In 1994, he becomes Governor of Georgia, possible after Primarying Zell Miller.

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In 2000, he makes a presidential run, maybe alongside someone like Colin Powell.

That sound good?
 
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King could become the ambassador to the UN instead of Andrew Young. I don’t see MLK going into politics. I think he would help Andrew Young get elected to Congress. King might also campaign for Jimmy Carter. If think if not Ambassador to the UN then at at least Carter appoints King Ambassador to a African country. As a clergyman maybe Ambassador to the Vatican sounds good or even Israel.
As far as what King does for the rest of the Sixties/Vietnam era:
-Perhaps he travels to Paris to speak to the North Vietnamese at the peace talks. maybe he takes on the cause of bringing attention to the POWs being held by North Vietnam.
 
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I don't see him entering public office should he live longer than OTL. His health, increasing activism for far-leftist causes, and the shift of the Civil Rights movement as a whole will all likely handicap his chances at running for any elected office. His adultery and accusations of plagiarism would have a bigger impact in a TL where he lived longer and wasn't basically a martyr for his cause.
 
Gallup said:
In 1963, King had a 41% positive and a 37% negative rating; in 1964, it was 43% positive and 39% negative; in 1965, his rating was 45% positive and 45% negative; and in 1966—the last Gallup measure of King using this scalometer procedure—it was 32% positive and 63% negative.

Basically once MLK became a left-winger, spoke against the then-popular war, and worked on real issues that angered white Americans (aka blacks buying houses in their neighbourhoods) his ratings collapsed. MLK is politically toxic in 1968 and likely will continue to be so for some time.

King as Director of FBI? He'd get rid of Hoover, who by the late 60s all of Washington was getting sick of. Also, he'd be able to enforce civil rights laws.

There’s a reason JFK, LBJ, and Nixon didn’t fuck with Hoover. Nor would Humphrey & especially not RFK heh
 
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