Without Free Speech, Today Is Just a Monday

A message from FIRE for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday:

Today, the vast majority of Americans agree with Martin Luther King Jr. that we should be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. So it’s easy to forget just how radical King’s ideas were in his time.

Unpopular ideas are often hated, as are the people who voice them. In 1966, Americans were nearly twice as likely to have a negative opinion of King. But many ideas deemed radical in the past become common sense in the future.

Free speech is the engine of that change. As King said in his famous "Mountaintop" speech:



King’s activism was a catalyst for significant shifts in American society — none of which would have happened without his First Amendment right to speak or the American people’s right to listen. That’s why, no matter what we might think of someone’s ideas today, we must defend the right to express them.

Today, FIRE continues to defend the rights of college professors to teach King’s words. But creating a culture of free speech takes more than legal advocacy. It takes tolerance for other views, intellectual humility, and principles over partisanship. 
 

If you don't support free speech for all, you don't support free speech at all.

Sadly, one response to King’s speech was violence, and it was an act of violence that claimed his life. This is a stark reminder of how transgressive his message was to many and the dangers of not respecting the right of others to express themselves. But those who sought to silence King only amplified his ideas, proving that they couldn’t combat his message of unity and equal rights with a better one.

In honor of King’s legacy, we salute free speech: the tool of radicals everywhere, and the right that makes change possible.

FIRE