Why is 'What Would MLK Think' ever brought up in these sorts of situations? Don't they teach MLK in schools?
I went to religious schools from age 11 through high school and aside from reading Black Boy in freshman English, which tbh I have no idea how that got in the curriculum, I had no exposure whatsoever to anything Civil Rights related.
19th century American history was preoccupied with the Sisyphean deal making in D.C., we just skipped over the Civil War--I distinctly remember my teacher saying, "I'm not going to teach this, you should all know it already," and by the time we even got to the 20th century (thanks to stewing on Colonial America for months longer than necessary) we just touched on some Cold War bullshit and the school year was over.
Even the compromise of 1877--a deal that consigned anything resembling free and fair elections (for people of color) to the trash for around a hundred years--was presented as back room power broker bullshit instead of what it was, trading the freedom of others for a 1 term presidency.
I should re-read Black Boy.