Deborah Chasman & Joshua Cohen
APRIL 4, 2°18, marks the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death. Once condemned by the head of the FBI as the “most notorious liar in the country,” King is now widely celebrated as a national hero, a martyr to an inspiring dream about our country’s largest possibilities.
In his lead article in this issue, Brandon M. Terry—political theorist and guest editor—underscores the costs of such canonization. In death King has come to be seen as an essentially conservative figure— a moralist who called Americans to keep faith with the country’s exceptional values. No surprise then that “many younger Americans greet his name with suspicion.”