It is common knowledge that Martin Luther King Jr was a womanizer. He even rivaled John F. Kennedy in this respect.
Of course, JFK was a president, not a preacher. But I am the son of a preacher man. So I have standing to put MLK’s womanizing into perspective. As it happens, I did over a decade ago in “Martin Luther King Jr. Was Also a Womanizer… So What!” January 4, 2006.
Back then, I realized Americans cared no more about MLK’s womanizing than JFK’s. It was shocking that even Black folks didn’t seem to care. Because it was disillusioning enough that MLK betrayed his religious faith. But he brought the Civil Rights Movement into disrepute too.
Mind you, Black folks have nothing on White evangelicals. Because these evangelicals worship Donald Trump, a pussy-grabbing, pathological liar. Everything Trump says and does betrays their religious faith. But he couldn’t care less.
But my apostasy was sanctified long before MLK could disillusion me. Even so, I was still dismayed to see MLK’s mug end up in the rogues’ gallery of notorious womanizers. Not least because this compelled comparisons with pedophile priests.
MLK was a womanizer and gang-bang ringleader too
Now comes evidence that gives credence to those comparisons.
Secret FBI tapes that accuse Martin Luther King Jr of having extramarital affairs with ’40 to 45 women’ and even claim he ‘looked on and laughed’ as a pastor friend raped a parishioner exist, an author has claimed.
The civil rights hero was also heard allegedly joking he was the founder of the ‘International Association for the Advancement of Pussy-Eaters’ on an agency recording that was obtained by bugging his room, according to the sensational claims made by biographer David Garrow – a Pulitzer prize-winning author and biographer of MLK.
(Daily Mail, May 26, 2019)
The transference afoot is obvious. But that evidence explains the infamous disgust Jackie Kennedy once expressed:
I just can’t see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, that man’s terrible. …
[My husband] told me of a tape that the FBI had of Martin Luther King when … he was calling up all these girls and arranging for a party of men and women, I mean, sort of an orgy in the hotel, and everything.
(ABC News, September 8, 2011)
More FBI tapes will show MLK in an even darker light
These revelations should disturb any fair-minded admirer of MLK. And these tapes don’t even show the worst of his sexual depravity. We have to wait until the government releases those FBI tapes in 2027. That will follow the way it released the Nixon tapes (in 1989).
Then, I fear MLK will suffer irredeemable reputational damage. Because roguish comparisons with bygone womanizers like JFK is one thing. Predatory comparison with MeToo rapists like Harvey Weinstein is quite another. This reckoning might even incite calls to tear down monuments to him.
I say no! And I explain why in “White Supremacy: The Tragedy and Folly of Charlottesville,” August 15, 2017. Simply put, George Washington owned slaves. Yet no one is calling to tear down monuments to him. So it would be unfair, to say the least, to do so in MLK’s case because he conspired to rape women. It’s that simple.
That said, my heart goes out to all the women MLK and his pack of predatory pastors hustled, abused, and even raped. There’s no denying all he did to advance the cause of civil rights. And, for that, we should all remain appreciative. But I agree with Jackie Kennedy. I will never look at or remember MLK with unconditional reverence ever again.
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