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Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarism allegations

Allegations of plagiarism against Martin Luther King Jr. in his doctoral dissertation and student papers, and the subsequent investigations and debates about the allegations.

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Jan 14, 2026
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was martin luther king jr. convicted of rape?

No—Martin Luther King Jr. was never criminally charged with or convicted of rape; the most explosive claims about him stem from FBI surveillance memos and a 2019 essay by David Garrow that cite sealed...

Jan 19, 2026
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What evidence exists in FBI files about Martin Luther King Jr.'s alleged affairs?

The FBI files contain extensive surveillance material — wiretap transcripts, memos and an anonymous “blackmail” package — that the bureau compiled and circulated in efforts to document and exploit Mar...

Jan 19, 2026
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What specific passages in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dissertation were identified as plagiarized and from which sources did they originate?

A late-1980s archival review by the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project found that King's 1955 Boston University dissertation included "large sections" of text taken from other writers without appro...

Jan 21, 2026

What are some negative truths about Martin Luther king Jr?

remains an iconic figure for civil rights, but his legacy contains documented and contested negative elements: credible archival evidence of extramarital sexual activity and questionable behavior reve...

Jan 19, 2026

MLK s private escapades

New revelations about Martin Luther King Jr.’s private life—chiefly drawn from FBI surveillance files and the research of biographers such as David Garrow—have intensified debate over documented sexua...

Jan 19, 2026

Were there other instances of academic dishonesty in Martin Luther King Jr's education?

Scholars who edited and reviewed Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers found multiple instances of unattributed borrowing across his student work — including significant passages in his 1955 doctoral disser...