FAIR used to republish their 1995 The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV every year. I don't think they republished it this year but it's still relevant and available. There is also this blog post, which includes this very clear quote: "A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, in order to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis."

I bring this up only because of Sarah Palin quoting the "content of their character" line and then telling Obama to not play the race card this Martin Luther King Day. Sarah Palin is of course an idiot, but the basic sentiment that racism is basically over and King wouldn't have wanted us to still be talking about race or having policies based on race is more widespread than her, and i agree with FAIR that it's in part due to the fact that King's message has been significantly watered down. Put it in the same category as people being shocked, shocked to learn that Nelson Mandela associated with Socialists while he was fighting apartheid. We haven't reached the end of racism, people are still trying to prevent blacks from voting, there is racial inequality in this country that can't just be explained by class problems, etc.. Today of all days (and really, i'm ok with all days), it's ok for Obama to "play the race card".

(This is all regardless of the fact that our very cautious president is unlikey to actually do so.)

It's definitely true that Martin Luther King, like Harry Truman, was more left wing than many care to remember. But in Mandela's case, the debate is over whether Mandela, and the ANC in general, hid inconvenient aspects of their pasts:
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-01-02-anc-suppresses-real-history-to-boost-its-claim-to-legitimacy/
Getting back to comics, it'll be interesting to see your take on the Black Panther apartheid stories in 1988 and 1989.

Michael, Stephen Ellis raises useful information from a historical perspective but i'm reacting to the more visceral outcry from conservatives that attacked even the likes of Newt Gingrich for honoring Mandela when he died.