The modern life of ours is largely dependent on what our ancestors did and did not do. The history, which is in the best words the recording of the flow of events, has a considerable impact on the way the society evolved. In fact, society itself is the product of historical dramatic changes. In these terms, since the dawn of our civilization, human beings had got used to documenting all the key episodes of their lives.
However, some of the historical archives may consist of fake material, wrong opinions, and fabricated facts. Such a way of disguising the truth is hard to reveal, still, it is possible to recommence the accuracy of the history written. Under such conditions, appear different ambivalences, which can be extremely influential and are integral in the context of our modern mundane routine.
However, there are cases, when the whole cult of a person can be ruined because of one single detail of his life revealed. Finding out about the sins of a historical figure questions the morality of his actions and the fair right to be remembered. One of such figures is Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., who is now considered to be the symbol of anti-racists campaigns. In fact, his degree of the doctor is the thing which is considered to be unfair as the research has evidenced that most of his final work was plagiarized. However, even though the ordinary procedure is to take the degree away, Martin Luther King was an exception, because his integral impact on the history made him a kind of untouchable figure. This particular decision of the Boston University is a highly debatable issue nowadays. Therefore, this conflict needs to be resolved in order to let the name of Martin Luther King be fairly accompanied with the status of the symbol of the anti-racist campaign but not with the degree of the doctor.
King’s Impact on the Civil Rights Protection
Martin Luther King is best known for leading the African-American Civil Rights Movement. This movement obtained a special form, given by its leader, which was a non-violent protest. Additionally, King implemented a lot of his Christian postulates and beliefs which shaped the general organization of the movement. Moreover, Martin Luther King was the first Afro-American civil rights activist, who became famous worldwide for his political and social involvement in fighting for the equal rights of the citizens of different race and origins.
Martin Luther King started his career as a civil rights protector soon after finishing the university in the year 1955. This particular year he had already become the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was his first integral involvement in the all-American movement for the protection of the civil rights. He also founded his own organization two years after, which was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Being the permanent leader and inspirer of the organization, Martin Luther took part in organizing non-violent marches and demonstrations in Georgia and Alabama. During these protests, he delivered a speech starting with a phrase “I have a dream”, which is now considered to be one of the most brillian speeches in the world. This speech had also won the society’s favor and King’s further status as one of the best orators of his time (Hansen 108).
Such an entrance in the world of politics and social movement made King a respectable figure and at the end of the year 1964, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for leading a powerful nonviolent campaign against racism. This award had inspired him to take on more responsibility and concentrate on all of the fields of human rights. From this time on, he started talking on the behalf of the poor people. Moreover, he was largely involved in the anti-war movement when the Vietnam conflict appeared to jeopardize the peaceful life of the United States.
As Martin Luther King led the life of a famous and influential political figure, who was fighting for the equal rights and the protection of all kinds of minorities, he was always under extreme danger. However, this did not distract him from leading the protection of the civil rights. In the year 1968, while working on the new large campaign against poverty in Memphis, Tennessee, he was attacked. After his death, he was honored with two considerable awards, the Presidential Medal of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal. Moreover, the authorities of the United States of America have established a federal holiday to honor his life. Alongside with dedicating the memorial to the memory of this historical figure, a great number of streets received his name (Baldwin 273-302).
In terms of such a wide and powerful route towards the protection of the equal rights of the racial minorities and the people with unfairly low income, the figure of Martin Luther King proves to be a key historical personality. Besides, his stable position in life and his confidence in fighting for the better future really evidences the fairness of naming Martin Luther King a hero of his time. In fact, it seems to be evident that no matter what happens, this personality will remain on the highest position in the historical pantheon of civil rights activists.
The Plagiarism in King’s Doctoral Studies
In the year 1955, Martin Luther King delivered his doctoral research in the fields of humanities. Taking into the account the fact that he was largely involved in the religious life, his work featured the image and impact of God in the assignments of Tillich and Wieman. After the successful defending his studies, Martin Luther King got the Ph.D. degree. Such a status has made the figure of this civil rights activist more respected. However, nowadays it is hard to say whether this person was delivering his studies to support his status in the future campaign against unfairness and discrimination.
The philosophical degree was given to Martin Luther King by the Boston university’s Division of Religious and Theological Studies as far as the study was examining the appearance of God in the works of two prominent philosophers and theologians Tillich and Wieman. In fact, even though the research of Martin Luther King was considered talented and scientific enough to be worth the degree of the doctor, less than forty years after the special committee proved this work to be plagiarized.
Actually, the fact of the plagiarism was found almost accidentally. While organizing all the works of Doctor Martin Luther King under the King Paper Project, which took place in the Stanford University, the professors have identified some specific parts of King’s doctoral study to repeat the research of another Boston University’s students. In order to make this statement a fair one, the special committee was created.
After an attentive and scholarly research, the committee of four professors have claimed the work had some large parts plagiarized. The results of the committee’s research were the following: “Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation by appropriating material from sources not explicitly credited in notes, or mistakenly credited, or credited generally and at some distance in the text from a close paraphrase or verbatim quotation” ("Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King"). The members of the committee also add that there is no precise evaluation of the reasons why Martin Luther King organized the material from his sources (some of which were doubted to be respectful) in an improper way.
The Evaluation of the Committee’s Decision
Even though the committee has proved that Martin Luther King delivered a study, which included the major parts of a number of secondary sources, King’s degree was not taken away. Moreover, the fact, that the borrowed portions were not even paraphrased in most of the occasions, was mainly ignored. The committee and the Boston university together agreed Martin Luther King on remaining the doctor of philosophical degree. The main argument was that this political and historical figure had contributed a lot to the idea of civil rights protection: “[d]espite its finding, the committee said that 'no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral degree,' an action that the panel said would serve no purpose” (Mikkelson). However, the committee advised the Boston University to support the official copy of King’s dissertation with the official findings of the research.
The root of such a strict attitude towards the acts of plagiarism within the doctoral dissertations lies in the concept of final studies in general. The dissertation, also commonly used as the thesis, is a research, which the student provides himself in order to prove the particular level of his education and knowledge (Breimer, Janssen and Damen 23). Dissertation or a doctoral study is also considered a document, which evidences that the person is worth obtaining a particular degree, for example, the degree of the doctor in a particular field of the studies. In the terms of such a definition of the concept of the dissertation, its social value seems to be of vital importance as it differentiates people with different levels of professionalism and knowledge ("What Is Dissertation Plagiarism?").
The most considerable about the concept of the dissertation is the uniqueness of the research and the independence in its deliverance. Students need to prove their level of knowledge, which cannot be proven by borrowing data from a number of secondary sources. In case plagiarism is found in a doctoral dissertation, the university can claim for the student to leave the university or at least to deliver a new study. If the plagiarism is found to take place some time earlier, the committee can withdraw the doctoral degree.
However, none of these measures were applied to Martin Luther King. In comparison to the ordinary punishment measures against plagiarized works, the decision of the Boston university’s committee seems to be unfair. Moreover, it ruins the concept of equality, which, in fact, was protected by Martin Luther King himself.
Of course, the reason for ignoring the act of plagiarism in the case of Martin Luther King, stated by the committee, seems to be fair. Still, it is not convincing enough to give one person a right to dominate over the others. In my point of view, all the students ought to have the equal terms of writing dissertations regardless of their status, which these students obtain in the future. From my judgment, Martin Luther King was using the achievements of other people not on behalf of the civil rights activist. Acting like an average student, which under some specific terms cannot deliver a proper research himself, Martin Luther King wasted his opportunity to get a Ph.D. degree.
Nevertheless, I totally agree with the committee’s decision to officially uncover the act of King’s plagiarism instead of disguising it. Additionally, I suppose it as a great idea to place the letter with the results of the committee’s research with the official copy of the dissertation by Martin Luther King. From my standpoint, these measures were necessary to implement. However, I suppose this is not enough because other students all over the United States do not get the same attitude. In fact, when delivering his research, Martin Luther King was an average student too, which once again supports my arguments against the fact of this person receiving the doctoral degree.
The Analysis of Sources
Plagiarism and unfair doctoral degree of such a famous person as Martin Luther King seem to call a considerable answer of the audience. In fact, there is a huge amount of studies and articles, provided on the subject of King’s plagiarism. In fact, not all of them are considered to be truthful and reliable.
The first news about the committee’s findings appeared in the newspapers, such as The New York Times ("Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King"). This source seems to be a reliable one as this newspaper has a long history of informing people about the most important events of the world. Besides, the report is both concise and complete, as it covers all the integral questions, which can be raised by the readers. Additionally, this material offers the direct quotes of the members of the committee, which precludes that the original information is handled and reported wrongly.
Alongside with The New York Times, a number of other periodicals picked up this topic. Such respected newspapers and journals as the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and the Sunday Telegraph continued talking about the newfound act of plagiarism by Martin Luther King. As these representatives of the printed media are experienced enough, their materials are worth trusting. Additionally, the journalists of these periodicals were the first to officially claim that Martin Luther King committed a conscious act of plagiarism as he was aware of all the dissertation requirements (de Palma).
There also appear a number of works, provided by those professors, who took part in organizing King Paper Project. One of them, Ralph E. Luker, considers the plagiarism in other scientific research, provided by Martin Luther King. In fact, by citing the particular work, “The Chief Characteristics and Doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism”, King do not even bother to paraphrase or mask the portions, which were taken from the secondary sources (Luker).
However, the most convenient way to get the information today is to surf the Internet in order to find some useful websites. However, when talking about the examined situation of King’s plagiarism, the websites are not to be considered as a useful or reliable source.
The first website, which contains the information about King’s plagiarism is Gary North’s Specific Answers (North). The author identifies himself as a son of one of the agents, who had investigated the case of King’s assassination. Due to that fact and according to his Christian education, North claims that even though Martin Luther King did not influence his life directly, the author was proud of writing an article about such a historical figure. However, the author remains neutral in describing all the aspects of King’s plagiarism. Moreover, the article consists of a great number of sources, which also examine the same topic. As the article of Gary North has a number of scholarly sources and all of his statements are supported by evidence, his website seems to be a trustful one.
The next website, however, seems to be more anti-King. Even though the article, submitted by the website HistoryNet also provides a number of links and citations, it obtains the tone of conviction. This statement can be supported by the fact that the title of the article includes the word ‘black’ which is rarely used when applied to the Afro-Americans by the scholarly sources. Moreover, when talking about the proportions of the article, the achievements of Martin Luther King are diminished in comparison to the description of his plagiarism. The analysis of other articles, located on this website proved that HistoryNet focuses on the military history rather than on the nonviolent civil rights campaigns ("Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.").
The third examined website is King Encyclopedia, a website, which provides all the known information about Martin Luther King in a number of articles. This particular site seems to be a pro-King one, as it honors the life and actions of this person. The page about King’s dissertation includes reliable and cited data; still, it offers an opportunity of this plagiarism to be random. This site as it states the interests of protecting the figure of Martin Luther King tries to save his reputation by stating that could be not a conscious act.
Conclusion
Martin Luther King is undoubtedly a great historical figure. His fighting towards the equality and rights protection seems to be the most powerful of all already known ones. He contributed himself to the idea of racial equality and poverty eradication, organized and led one of the most popular movement of nonviolent protesting campaigns. He died when working on what he considered being the work if his life. However, all of his achievements in the field of civils rights protection were considered enough to ignore the fact that he plagiarized some major portions of his doctoral study.
In my point of view, Martin Luther King had to be judged under the same terms as other students, because this is the concept of equality. The minimal punishment, in my opinion, ought to be the deprivation of the doctor’s degree. I suppose that the committee was prejudiced when deciding how to punish Martin Luther King for being unfair when delivering his dissertation.
The way this act of plagiarism is judged by different periodicals and websites is different from source to source. However, while the newspapers and journals are the reliable sources, not all of the website are the truthful ones. Some of them are openly pro-Kings and vice versa.
Works Cited
"Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King". The New York Times. N.p., 1991. Web. 4 May 2016.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.". HistoryNet. Web. 4 May 2016.
"What Is Dissertation Plagiarism?". wiseGEEK. Web. 4 May 2016.
Baldwin, Lewis V. To Make the Wounded Whole. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992. Print.
Breimer, D.D, Aad Janssen, and Jos Damen. Hora Est!. Leiden: Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, 2005. Print.
de Palma, Antony. "Plagiarism Seen by Scholars In King's Ph.D. Dissertation".Nytimes.com. N.p., 1990. Web. 4 May 2016.
Hansen, Drew D. The Dream. New York: Ecco, 2003. Print.
Luker, Ralph. "On Martin Luther King's Plagiarism ". Historynewsnetwork.org. N.p., 2004. Web. 4 May 2016.
Mikkelson, David. "Four Things You Didn't Know About Martin Luther King". Snopes. Web. 4 May 2016.
North, Gary. "How Martin Luther King, Jr. Got Away with Plagiarism: Different Strokes For Different Folks.". Garynorth.com. N.p., 2005. Web. 4 May 2016.
