I think I'm the only one in this discussion who was alive or at least an adult during the King/Civil rights era during the 1950-60s. And, as I've mentioned many times before, how these times impacted on black people differed from place-to-place.
A lot of what I absorbed about these times was from what I saw on TV because in the little western suburb of Chicago where I lived, no overt racial turmoil existed nor were any Jim Crow laws on the books in Illinois. Blacks and whites just went their separate ways, self segregating themselves, observing unwritten laws that perpetuated the status quo of subtle racism. This was a fairly typical atmosphere in that region.
I always attended integrated schools, always had a few white friends and neighbors, never had a black teacher, and my Freshman year at the University of Illinois was when this schools' dormitories were first integrated. I've spoken often about how in my Sophomore year there when I moved into one of these dormitories, while black college students in the South were "sittin in" and being arrested at segregated lunch centers, I and my black dormmates were having our rooms cleaned by white maids, and served meals in the dining rooms by white waitresses and waiters who spoke with the accents native to the down state region of Illinois.
I've mentioned how I always worked side-by-side with Whites in the Civil Service Federal work force where you were eligible for employment by simply passing a test open to everyone. This is what qualified me to work for both the Veterans Administration and the Social Security Administration before ending up at the U.S. Post Office after passing the postal exam.
All during those times. I never got the impression that MLK embodied a tightly-organized, long standing strategy. This was more the domain of A. Phillip Randolph, the head of the Pullman Porters Union, and the leader who actually organized the1963 March on Washington for jobs and opportunities.
King was moreorless romanticized as a young minister who was on the fringes of the NAACP bus boycott that Rosa Parks initiated. He was cast as an unknown who was propelled forward to a leadership role because he was so eloquent and intelligent and, subsequently, like Jesus, he surrounded himself with a band of Disciples that included dynamic young turks like Ralph Albernathy, Andrew Young, Julien Bond, John Lewis, and Jesse Jackson, who with the non-violent model of Mahatma Gandhi as their model, marched forth to pursue the integration dream of justice and equality for all!
Meanwhile, King's militant counterpart, Malcom X was telling it like it was, ironically doing what Trump did; which was publicly saying all the things about white folks that black folks had always been thinking.
I was surprised by Richard's statement that his people laughed at Malcom. Everybody I knew agreed with and admired him. Which just goes to show how history can be in the eye of the beholder and how varied the black experience can be.
As for King's personal life, much of what was made public was taken from the FBI files of J. Edgar Hoover who kept MLK under close surveillance.
Also, after King's death, in his memoir, Ralph Abernathy inspired a lot of resentment for revealing some things about King's intimate liaisons. "Keepers of the Flame" never forgave Ralph for this. Whatever. King has earned and secured a place of honor and affection in the hearts of his people. RIP MLK.