For MLK Day, a Tale of Two Murders by Samuel Francis

Описание: As Martin Luther King Day approaches (observed January 19, 2026), Sam Francis's 2005 essay "For MLK Day, A Tale of Two Murders" offers a sharp, contrarian lens on the holiday's legacy. Published on January 17, 2005, Francis begins wryly: "Like the fog in Carl Sandburg’s insipid poem, Martin Luther King Day this year seems to have crept up on the nation on little cat feet."

He contrasts the media's triumphant coverage of the arrest of aging white Klansman Edgar Ray Killen for the 1964 murders of civil rights workers with the sympathetic portrayal in The New York Times of Black convicted murderer Wilbert Rideau—who in 1961 robbed a bank, took white hostages, and brutally killed one by stabbing and slitting her throat—focusing on his "transformation" while downplaying his victims.

Francis argues this reveals a double standard: glee over prosecuting white racial killers tied to the civil rights era, versus excuses for Black-on-white violence, highlighting what he saw as selective racial narratives and media bias in how justice and history are framed during MLK commemorations. It's a provocative reminder that the holiday's meaning remains deeply contested.

https://www.unz.com/sfrancis/for-mlk-...