The Worst Week of 1968 | Newsweek The Boomer Files

Posted By: jiminchina @ 03/09/2008 4:54:54 AM

Comment: I live in China, now, so I don't always get Newsweek in a timely manner. I read this article closely because on April 4, 1968 I lived in Memphis where I worked for the IRS during the day and attended university at night. I belonged to the anti war group SDS and Although I am white I was friendly with the leaders of the Invaders. The description of how Dr. King was murdered is the "official" version. Most people familiar with the event ------

believe that Dr. King was murdered in a plot directed by J.Edgar Hoover. Too many strange things happened in the moments before the shot which killed Dr. King to lead to any other conclusion. James Earl Ray neve

r really got a trial which might have told us more about what really happened.

Posted By: zach55 @ 01/28/2008 9:42:53 PM

Comment: However, do you know more about Dr. King, some one has seen his profile on a senior dating site boomermingle.com, what shall he do on that site?

Posted By: numlock @ 01/26/2008 9:33:31 AM

Comment: By 1968 Dr. King was no longer an "A" list personality. His major contribution at that time was his stance against the Vietnam war, which is not even mentioned in this piece. Hving Dr. King come out against the war was a major contribution to the anti-war cause, greatly appreciated by anti-war demonstrators such as myself. His anit-war stance is rarely mentioned these days. But it was important at the time as most of mid america was still in favor of the war.

Posted By: Terrence @ 11/21/2007 10:21:39 AM

Comment: Evan Thomas was wrong to state that MLK confidant Stanley Levison was ???falsely accused communist spy.??? It gives the impression of trumped-up charges when in reality, if not an actual spy, Levinson was indeed a communist, met with the KGB and was a part of King???s inner circle. In the ground-breaking book on Soviet espionage, The Sword and the Shield, by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin it reveals that Soviet agents Morris and Jack Childs reported that Stanley Levison was a secret Party member. Also, while under FBI surveillance Levison met with Viktor Lesiovsky, a KGB officer working as special assistant to the UN Secretary General. That information puts more perspective on why Kennedy ordered the wiretapping of MLK.

Posted By: Terrence @ 11/21/2007 10:20:50 AM

Comment: Evan Thomas was wrong to state that MLK confidant Stanley Levison was ???falsely accused communist spy.??? It gives the impression of trumped-up charges when in reality, if not an actual spy, Levinson was indeed a communist, met with the KGB and was a part of King???s inner circle. In the ground-breaking book on Soviet espionage, The Sword and the Shield, by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin it reveals that Soviet agents Morris and Jack Childs reported that Stanley Levison was a secret Party member. Also, while under FBI surveillance Levison met with Viktor Lesiovsky, a KGB officer working as special assistant to the UN Secretary General. That information puts more perspective on why Kennedy ordered the wiretapping of MLK.

Posted By: calibrary @ 11/16/2007 9:54:38 AM

Comment: A correction to a correction:
In a previous comment, I referred to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. He gave that speech in Washington D.C. in 1963. The 1968 one at Mason Temple in Memphis is known as the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. (Rosemary Nelms, The Commercial Appeal News Library).

Posted By: calibrary @ 11/15/2007 10:22:03 AM

Comment: In his recounting of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Memphis, the author incorrectly twice refers to historic Mason Temple as "the Masonic Temple." In fact, Mason Temple was named for Charles Harrison Mason, founder of the Church of God in Christ. Author Taylor Branch, cited by Mr. Thomas in his story, speaks of Mason Temple (not Masonic) on page 758 of "At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68. (Rosemary Nelms, The Commercial Appeal News Library, Memphis, TN)