‘Is Ann Coulter right about the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King, Jr.?’

Ah, yes, as I’ve been quipping for years now:

“Rosa Parks has a lot to answer for”; “Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney: Not Dead Enough” and “Was that milkshake really worth it?”

Alas, I don’t have a million dollar multi-book deal…

And the usual suspects have been awfully quiet about Coulter’s new book, haven’t they?

Juan Williams writes:

Coulter and I disagree most of the time, especially on her regular use of harsh, partisan hyperbolic language to caricature people. Her tirades against liberals get lots of media attention and sell books but they overshadow the serious insights she has into American history. And when Ann is right, Ann can be devastatingly right.

In any case, Marshall worked to achieve racial equality by ending laws that discriminated against Americans in schools, in playgrounds, housing, on juries and at work. And he told me over the course of months of interviews of his differences with King. “I used to have a lot of fights with Martin about his the theory.”

Marshall said in one interview as we discussed King’s street protest tactics. “I didn’t believe in that. I thought you had the right to disobey the law and you have the right to go to jail for it.” In the same interview, Marshall conceded that King had tremendous influence. “He came up at the right time,” he said. “I think he was great – as a leader. As an organizer, he wasn’t worth s—t..He was a great speaker…but as for getting the work done, he was not too good at that… All he did was dump all his legal work on us (the NAACP) including the bills. And that was all right with him so long as he didn’t have to pay the bills.”

(…)

History tells us that both the demonstrators and the lawyers played vital roles in bringing about the end of segregation in America. But Marshall’s more conservative view of how to create lasting social change is often forgotten because he never wore a dashiki or patronized the idea of race riots as helpful to achieving racial equality. He was seen by many of the 60’s activists as a boring, law and order, establishment judge who deeply believed in the Constitution, loved America and was a social conservative.

(via)

Glenn Beck (not to mention a few Canadian conservatives I’ve argued with) are WAY too comfy cozy with King.

Citing King all the time is what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” and Beck of all people should know that, since Bonhoeffer is his new hero.

This LIFE magazine view of history is naive and ultimately — as we can see all around us — counterproductive.