WI MLK Not Assassinated?

I think that there is some misunderstanding about King. He believed in non violence. He was NOT a moderate.

He was getting more concerned about poverty as well as racism.

How he would react on issues of women's rights and gay people is hard to tell.

It would have been interesting had he taken on most of the socially liberal agenda but remained opposed to abortion- I can well see where someone could come to that view from a non violence (as distinct from fundamentalist anti woman) starting point.
 
I think that there is some misunderstanding about King. He believed in non violence. He was NOT a moderate.

He was getting more concerned about poverty as well as racism.

How he would react on issues of women's rights and gay people is hard to tell.

It would have been interesting had he taken on most of the socially liberal agenda but remained opposed to abortion- I can well see where someone could come to that view from a non violence (as distinct from fundamentalist anti woman) starting point.

Well, I definatley think he would be pro-women's rights(I could imagine him touring across the nation to try to win support for the ERA in the early Seventies) as well as Gay Rights(Bayard Rustin was a close friend of Martin's, and he was deeply troubled when he had to dismiss Rustin because Hoover's FBI was threating to use his Communist ties and his open Homosexuality against the Montgomery Bus Boycott in '55). He would also continue to fight his War on Poverty, but since LBJ was pretty much a lame duck after Tet and he and MLK's personal relationship had largely degraded at that point. There probably wont be anything done about it. Unless maybe due to butterflies we have Kennedy, Humphrey or Rockefeller being sworn into office in January 1969, instead of Nixon.

As for the Radicalization of the Civil Rights movement...that shift to a more Militant Black Nationalisim really started before Martin's Assassination(circa 1966). Alot of MLK's associates really talked about how Martin felt about the growing trend as many Blacks came to see Martin as a relic(This caused the moved to Chicago and the focus of general poverty). So in a TL where Martin lived I could see him continue to fight against the Black Panther movement well into the Seventies.

Then comes the issue of whether or not Martin would ever try to run for Political office? I personally think he didn't really have the personality or the pathological ambition to seek Politcal power like his colleagues Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson did. But since I don't really see America's shift to the right not happening in a MLK lives TL, it may be what he gets pushed into doing for the rest of his life. Who knows maybe as a Georgia Congressman, he could become the Liberal Lion of the House in the 1980's and become the first Black Presidential Nominee in '84 or '88. Wether or not he could win...remains to be seen:D
 
Frankly I dont think alot of people gave him alot of thought until he was assisinated. Sad, but true, many people dont become famous until they die.

Personally I think eventually politics and the trouble of running a vast organization with thousands of people and requiring millions of dollars of funding would have caught up with him. He might have gotten caught up in a scandal (he had several mistresses), got sucked into a power struggle about who was the HNIC (head nigger in charge), or just become disillusioned with the whole thing.

As Bob Hope said "its harder to stay on top than to get to the top".
 
This is certainly a very interesting thread; couple of thoughts I had:

1) It does seem there's consensus that at some point King isn't going to be at the head of the CRM, the Anti-Poverty Campaign, or the coalition that moves them, and will need to pass the torch. What's less clear is when that would be.

2) Assuming MLK living doesn't butterfly away Nixon's victory in 68, those two are going to clash hard and often; I can see King having a prominent place on the enemies list. Is it possible this kind of leader in the opposition could make Dick a one term president?
 
The civil rights movements in many ways can be seen as a revolution and in any revolution the original leaders of the party need to pass the torch onto the subsequent leaders once the change has been made, less they snuff said torch. MLK would eventually be in a difficult position of being forgotten in the face of new leaders who become known by championing new concerns. That in mind, if MLK continues to shift with the populace, as has been previously mentioned, we could see the strongest possibility of an upswing in socialist sentiments since Debs.

MLK would have certainly been a Christian Socialist. As I have mentioned in the "Why isn't the US socialist?" thread that has been plaguing our front page of this discussion area for so long, Christian Socialism has a better chance of success than any other form of the "S" word. MLK could co-opt a fair share of the Socially conservative right that supported Reagan.

On social issues, the Christian right who tend to vote Republican IOTL and the religious minorities who tend to vote Democrat IOTL are very close on views, the Republican party has simply done an excellent job in alienating the minorities to an extent such that their economic and other concerns overwhelms their cultural similarities. I think it is not unreasonable to think of a TL where MLK is one of the leaders of socially conservative voters who have a socialist streak to them. UHC but no abortions sort of deal.
 
King would focus on the poverty problem. He would stirr new controversy with his criticism of the free enterprise system. I don't see how his survival makes the US more socially conservative. Please someone inform me.
 
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