https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n19/eric-foner/defanged Created Fri, 22/09/2023 - 00:00 Updated Fri, 22/09/2023 - 00:00 People of every political persuasion now claim Martin Luther King as a forebear. But during his lifetime, King and the civil rights movement aroused considerable opposition, not only in the South. The government sought to destroy King’s reputation.