Martin Luther King is a praised Civil Rights activist. He made a great change in the United States in the 1960s by leading the end of segregation through peaceful protests. Recently, however, concerns have surfaced about plagiarism in his dissertation for his doctoral degree. His doctoral degree is now questioned by this. Officials have also recovered traces of plagiarism in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech after this realization of plagiarism. Does this jeopardize the character of the King himself?
According to the New York Times, Boston University officials studied King’s dissertation, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.” They found that he had not properly cited or quoted specific passages. They found connections with a work by Jack Boozer, who had written for Boston University three years prior to King. The committee will not withdraw King’s doctoral degree; however, the New York Times states, “…the committee did recommend that a letter stating its finding be placed with the official copy of Dr. King’s dissertation in the university’s library.”
King’s “I Have a Dream” speech has many similarities to a speech written by Archibald Cary in 1952, three years before. The line, “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” is replicated from Cary’s speech in King’s. Other lines from Cary’s speech such as, “From the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the great smoky’s of Tennessee” are not copied; the idea, however, is the same. King stated, “From Stone Mountain in Georgia. From Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.” There is debate on whether King meant these lines as an attribute to Carey or directly plagiarized these ideas.
Although Martin Luther King is a highly respected and praised individual who did a lot for our country and the freedom for others, it can not be ignored that his works were not original. Los Angeles Times states, “Carson and King’s associates in the civil rights movement said Friday that the discovery of plagiarism by King in his student days, no matter how disturbing to strict scholars, should not detract from later achievements of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.” This does not change how he changed this country, and he will continue to be an important figure of history.