MLK Event Seeks Honest Appreciation of Civil Rights Leader

Jonathan Eig addressed both Middle School and Upper School audiences via Zoom Jan. 16 as part of Thayer’s observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The journalist and author urged listeners to appreciate the courage and commitment of the real MLK, flaws and all, rather than accept the comfortable hagiography often meted out on the holiday. 

“If we turn King into a monument and forget that he was flesh and blood, he’s not really as useful to us as a historical lesson,” said Eig, whose 2024 biography King: A Life earned the Pulitzer Prize. The exhaustively researched biography, which makes use of several untapped or underutilized resources (including newly declassified FBI documents), explores the slain civil rights leader’s deep personal faith and incredible leadership skills while also tackling the struggles King faced as a person: an adolescence racked by mental health issues; instances of plagiarism; and marital infidelities. 

“It reminds us that our heroes don’t have to be perfect,” said Eig, who spent six years working on the King biography. Eig added that, in researching and writing the book, he was often struck by how vulnerable King was. 

Eig used his time with Thayer students to dispel another misconception that’s grown up around King, namely that he was a safer, less radical alternative to firebrand civil rights leaders like Malcolm X. 

“King was dangerous, and the government was afraid of him,” said Eig, emphasizing that that same federal government actively and often cruelly worked to destroy King because he represented the specter of real change. 

As part of his research Eig spoke to civil rights leaders such as the late John Lewis, the late Harry Belafonte, Jesse Jackson, and Andrew Young, but he also spoke to King’s barber and those who knew King as a teenager. He discovered in King a complex individual who was a messy eater, chewed his fingernails, loved baseball and boxing, and possessed a great sense of humor. Eig also discovered a leader whose faith called him to the civil rights struggle no matter what the consequences. 

“He was willing to risk his life, and he was willing to continue to work with the same government that wanted to destroy him,” said Eig, who later added: “He’s more radical and more courageous than I even suspected.” 

Eig spoke first at the Upper School and then at the Middle School, with Dean of Engagement & Belonging Matt Ghiden facilitating the former and Middle School World Languages Faculty Richie Iskra, who also serves as the Middle School’s diversity coordinator, facilitating the latter. 

“Martin Luther King Jr. Day often asks us to admire Dr. King,” Ghiden said in introducing Eig to the Upper School. “Today we’re going to ask you to do something a little harder: try to fully understand who he was.” 

In discussing King’s life and legacy, Eig used slightly different language in each talk but encouraged both divisions not to accept the simple version of King’s life. For instance, Eig reminded both the Upper School and the Middle School that King’s famous “I have a dream” speech began by raising the issues of police brutality, income inequality, and reparations. 

“The holiday should be a reminder that King was a radical,” Eig said. 

The federal holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986. Observed annually on the third Monday in January, it celebrates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was born Jan. 15, 1929, and would have turned 97 this year. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, the civil rights leader was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; King was in the city to support striking sanitation workers.