King relied on deception

In a few days, America will have its only national holiday honoring an individual, Dr. Martin Luther King. In his most consequential address, Dr. King asked Americans to pass a civil rights bill based upon a commitment to judging a person not “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Unfortunately, it is hard not to conclude that Dr. King deliberately deceived the American people with those words. Almost immediately upon passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, quotas and preferences, both in government and the private sector, were instituted based on the color of a person’s skin.

If he had honestly and openly said a civil rights act would result in institutionalized race-based benefits for the next 50 years, no bill would have passed. Dr. King manipulated the basic decency of the American people in order to achieve an agenda contrary then and contrary now to their wishes.

There are things more fundamental than any specific issue. One is that government of a free people requires the consent of the governed. Dr King and the civil rights establishment turned an act of national redemption into just another political maneuver.

Bill Manuel

Spokane