What we can learn from media coverage of MLK

Plus: The risks of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen |

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By Made by History / Produced by Olivia B. Waxman Each January, we recall Martin Luther King Jr. as a beloved luminary—one of our greatest Americans. But as Hajar Yazdiha explains in Made by History, King received much media scrutiny and criticism during his life. The press questioned everything from his leadership skills to whether his philosophy was actually non-violent. It was only during a lengthy campaign to turn his birthday into a national holiday that a new King emerged: less radical and more acceptable to conservatives. That mythological figure is the one many people end up celebrating each January. Recalling the way journalists covered King's activism during his life, however, helps us to see that—like social movements today—King’s tactics were questioned and criticized. Attempts, therefore, to portray modern movements as deviating from King’s more noble path are often misleading. We also see that King wasn’t some sort of superhero, and that the gains of the civil rights era came from the work of countless activists—knowledge that may provide inspiration for those waiting on the sidelines for the next once-in-a-generation leader to emerge.

HISTORY ON TIME.COM Lessons from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Fight to Mobilize the Black Church By Dylan C. Penningroth The history of Black churches' struggles offers both warnings and hope for the U.S. today, writes Dylan Penningroth. Read More » Here’s How Many Streets Are Probably Named After Martin Luther King Jr. By Olivia B. Waxman A look at how many streets are named after Martin Luther King Jr. Read More » History Suggests U.S. Airstrikes Against the Houthis Will Backfire By Ibrahim Al-Marashi / Made by History Foreign powers have long failed to achieve military objectives in Yemen, and attacks on the Houthis will likely enhance their popularity. Read More » Americans Used to Care More About Israel Dividing the U.S. From Its U.N. Allies By Sean T. Byrnes / Made by History Americans have been isolated at the U.N. on Israel for a half century — but that used to prompt fierce debate. Read More » The History That Makes Guatemala’s Presidential Inauguration a Very Big Deal By Ilan Palacios Avineri / Made by History The inauguration of Bernardo Arévalo is a rekindling of a revolutionary flame snuffed out decades ago. Read More » What’s Behind the Fight Over Whether Nonprofits Can Be Forced to Disclose Donors’ Names By Helen J. Knowles-Gardner / Made by History Remembering a Supreme Court case that serves as a reminder of how tricky it is to balance protecting transparency and freedom of association. Read More »

FROM THE TIME VAULT This week in 1960: U.S. commuters BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF The Jan. 18, 1960, cover of TIME “The great postwar exodus to Suburbia has scattered commuters through the U.S. countryside surrounding great cities, put a crippling strain on the arteries that feed the metropolises…If vast transportation changes are not made, traffic experts predict that by 1970 so many cars will be pouring daily into big cities that the monstrous traffic jam will just about stop all movement. For U.S. commuter railroads, crying out in financial agony, the auto has wiped out much of the balanced, all-day, regular-fare business that once made rail passengers profitable. It has left the rails burdened with the money-losing, morning-evening commuter rush—and even cut heavily into that. The number of passengers commuting by rail annually has dropped from 458 million in 1929 to 224 million in 1959.” Read More » This week in 1989: Donald Trump NORMAN PARKINSON The Jan. 16, 1989, cover of TIME “At 6 ft. 2 in., real estate tycoon Donald J. (for John) Trump does not really loom colossus-high above the horizon of New York and New Jersey. He has created no great work of art or ideas, and even as a maker or possessor of money he does not rank among the top ten, or even 50. Yet at 42 he has seized a large fistful of that contemporary coin known as celebrity. There has been artfully hyped talk about his having political ambitions, worrying about nuclear proliferation, even someday running for President. No matter how farfetched that may be, something about his combination of blue-eyed swagger and success has caught the public fancy and made him in many ways a symbol of an acquisitive and mercenary age…Now that a new year has dawned, observers of the Trump empire can rather easily imagine some of the emperor's resolutions for 1989: to make more money than ever, to buy more expensive gewgaws than ever, to get more publicity than ever.” Read More » This week in 2014: Janet Yellen PETER HAPAK The Jan. 20, 2014, cover of TIME “On Jan. 6, Janet Louise Yellen was confirmed by the Senate as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve System of the United States. As Fed chair, she is responsible for deciding where and how money flows, not just in the U.S. but also in much of the world, given the dollar's position as the global reserve currency. She is the first woman to hold the job. More important, she is also the first chair who is an openly reform-minded Keynesian--meaning she lives by the belief that monetary policy can temper the swings of the business cycle, strengthening the economy for workers as well as financiers. The diminutive 67-year-old Yellen smiles often and comes across as something like your favorite aunt, if your aunt had a chair with her own brass nameplate in the middle of the 22-ft.-long Fed Board of Governors conference table. When she's not charting the economic course of the free world, Yellen is a foodie who likes to travel with her Nobel Prize--winning husband, stopping at any Michelin-starred restaurants they encounter along the way.” Read More »

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