Hello, and happy Monday to all. Let’s get into this week’s first newsletter. (Stick around to the very end of this piece to see what this paper ran on the day of King’s speech.)

The Editorial Board at Maine’s Bangor Daily News marked the 94th birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by reprinting King’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, adding that “we should take a step away from our divisive politics and recall his defining speech.”

Bangor Daily News @bangordailynews

Editorial: "As we mark the 94th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we should take a step away from our divisive politics and recall his defining speech."

bangordailynews.comEditorial: Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream“As we mark the 94th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we should take a step away from our divisive politics and recall his defining speech.”

4:32 PM ∙ Jan 15, 2023

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From the Bangor Daily News (as originally published):

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. …

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. …

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, ‘My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’ …

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

As you can see in the BDN text, there are a number of ellipses peppered in, noting omissions. My first thought was one I imagine others shared as well: What was cut and why?

Below is King’s full speech, as delivered on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Click here to listen to the speech.) In bold are the lines that were edited out of BDN’s reprint:

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

The BDN piece gives audiences the sanitized King, the mythologized man and beloved civil rights hero. What it omits is a messy, important reality.

I understand why someone might cut the “Let freedom ring from…” refrain where King lists New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and so on.

Other changes are harder to reconcile. For instance, why omit King saying “…Alabama, with its vicious racists”? Why cut the paragraphs about “the fierce urgency of Now” and calls against “engag[ing] in the luxury of cooling off”? Why remove the paragraph about not being satisfied “as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality”?

Those are the core components of the speech! Those portions of the speech help us understand what King meant when he talked about dreaming of a future in which people are “judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Many (especially on the right) cite that line as evidence that King thought the world would be just fine if suddenly people just started acting “colorblind” to race. It’s not true. That is not what he said, and omitting the list of things that still needed to happen in order to achieve the world he dreamed of, is how the world has been handed a sanitized version of a man who was extraordinarily controversial and despised by a significant portion of Americans during his life.

From today’s CNN piece by Harry Enten about King’s popularity during his lifetime:

During the 1960s, King was a very divisive figure. The last Gallup poll to ask about his popularity during his lifetime, taken in 1966, found his unfavorable rating was 63%. This included 39% of Americans who gave him a -5 rating, on a scale with -5 being least favorable and +5 being most favorable.

King’s highly negative rating came when he had turned his attention from Southern de jure segregation toward de facto segregation in northern cities.

But even before then, King was far from a universally liked person. In the middle of 1964, when Congress was in the midst of passing many landmark civil rights laws, King’s favorable rating was just 44%. His unfavorable rating was basically equal at 38%.

When Americans were asked which three Americans they had the least respect for in a 1964 Gallup poll, King came in second at 42%. This was barely less than the 47% registered by George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama. Only 17% mentioned King’s name, when asked which three Americans they had the most respect for.

Perhaps even more revealing is that a lot of White Americans thought King was doing more harm than good for the fight for civil rights. In a 1966 Harris poll, 50% of White Americans indicated that he was hurting the civil rights effort. A mere 36% said he was helping. King’s favorable rating among them was 27% in 1966.

Black Americans saw things very differently. The vast majority in 1963 thought his work for equal rights was moving at the right speed (71%) or not fast enough (21%) compared with 8% who believed it was happening too fast. In 1966, 84% of Black adults had a favorable view of King, while 4% had an unfavorable view.

Even in the immediate aftermath of his death, many Americans had a negative view of King. Nearly a third (31%) said he brought his 1968 assassination upon himself. Less than a majority (43%) said they were sad (38%) or angry (5%).

I reached out to Susan Young at the Bangor Daily News to ask for help understanding the process that went into the editing of the paper’s story. Here’s what she had to say in response:

Thanks for reaching out.

I would encourage you and others who are piling on the BDN to consider our body of work, not just one editorial, which I acknowledge could use an update.

For example, here is an editorial from 2020 that referenced Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from a Birmingham Jail.

I wrote back to Young in hopes of some clarity on my original question about why edits to the speech were made and how the paper decided which portions to omit, and I will update this piece should I hear back.

The issue isn’t the Bangor Daily News. The issue is that we, as a society, don’t want to admit that many of the issues we like to pretend are in the past are still present today. And what’s worse: there are growing movements on the right to try to ensure that this mangled, cleaned-up version of history is the one that’s taught to kids in schools through their state-sponsored “anti-critical race theory” laws and propaganda. Men like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, men who would have openly loathed King during his lifetime, now co-opt the martyr’s words to advance their racist agendas. In fact, the “anti-CRT” movement has gone so far as to try to ban the teaching of King’s work.

As King said in the “I Have a Dream” speech, “Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning.” Unfortunately, that line didn’t make it into BDN’s edit.

What do you think of the Bangor Daily News's edited version of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Leave a comment

Updates:

Edit: The great Kevin Kruse seems to be the first person to catch the BDN discrepancy, posting it to Twitter.

Kevin M. Kruse @KevinMKruse

Good Lord, this is even worse than I assumed. The @bangordailynews reprinted King's "I Have a Dream" speech but they cut out a bunch of parts they apparently deemed too divisive. Police brutality? Gone. Poverty? Gone. This is pathetic.

Bangor Daily News @bangordailynews

Editorial: "As we mark the 94th birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we should take a step away from our divisive politics and recall his defining speech." https://t.co/vueecuZ5tG

9:54 PM ∙ Jan 15, 2023

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Kruse also highlighted what the BDN published about King on the day of the March on Washington. Calling for that to be “the final ‘march,’” the paper wrote, “All in all, we can’t think of a better place to stay away from today than Washington, D.C., the seat of the nation’s government.”

Here’s the text:

Today’s the day for the much publicized “civil rights” march upon Washington. We hope it is staged without serious incidents.

At best, however, it is going to paralyze normal activity in the nation’s capital for the day. Huge traffic jams are considered inevitable. This is bound to result in wholesale absenteeism in government offices. Those who have business in Washington that can wait will stay away.

Millitant minority organizations such as the Black Muslims and American Nazi party aim to put on disruptive demonstrations of their own. A large law enforcement army has been recruited, including firemen, National Guardsmen and, on a standby basis, federal troops. All in all, we can’t think of a better place to stay away from today than Washington, D.C., the seat of the nation’s government.

And what is the purpose of this big show? To center attention on a fact which we would think every American must know by this time: that Negroes do not fully enjoy the civil rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

The Negroes’ plight has been demonstrated time and again in various parts of the country, dating from 1957 when the then President Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock, Ark. In many instances, exhibitionists have gotten into the act. Jails have been filled and refilled by men and women deliberately committing acts of civil disobedience.

Worst of all, the demonstrations have resulted in mob violence and bloodshed. There have been bombinbs, stabbings and shootings. Both white people and Negroes have been victims.

All of which leads us to ask: Isn’t America sufficiently civilized to work out the integration problem in a calm and orderly manner?

We believe the answer to be “Yes.” We suggest, therefore, that demonstrations end with today’s mass march upon Washington. We urge civil rights leaders to help restore civil peace in the nation. Then let the nation get on with the vast social task of integration in a dignified manner.

Obviously, the editorial opinions of people working at a newspaper 60 years ago don’t say anything about the current editorial state of the paper. That said, if you’re going to invoke King’s name and memory to urge people to “take a step away from our divisive politics,” you probably shouldn’t cite a speech in which he said, “And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” Right there, it probably should have served as a clue that King was very much about engaging in politics, even (and perhaps especially) when they are divisive.

Or, I suppose one could just delete the inconvenient portions.

And wait, there’s more…

This isn’t even the first time the paper has run this same post with the same boilerplate: “As we mark the [however old he would have been] birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we should take a step away from our divisive politics and recall his defining speech delivered in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963.” The below example is from 2020.

Update, 1/18/23:

The BDN published “an explanation and an apology” for the MLK editorial.