More documents from the JFK file were released over the weekend, and some of them hit the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and hit it hard. The National Archives show that the FBI had 20 pages of dirt on the civil rights giant, curiously embedded in the assassination files.

For example, the file claims that King had a mistress in California with whom he had a love child. Not only that, but they also allege he had affairs with three other women, including singer Joan Baez.

Another file claims that orgies occurred at a February, 1968, workshop:

“One Negro minister in attendance later expressed his disgust with the behind-the scene drinking, fornication, and homosexuality that went on at the conference. Several Negro and white prostitute[s] were brought in from the Miami area. An all-night sex orgy was held with these prostitutes and some of the delegates.”

“When one of the females shied away from engaging in an unnatural act, King and other of the males present discussed how she was to be taught and initiated in this respect.”
“It is a fact that King not only regularly indulges in adulterous acts but enjoys the abnormal by engaging in group sexual orgies.”

None of this salacious information was ever confirmed, and much of it came from hearsay and private conversations.

Moreover, the files also allege that MLK was “a slow thinker,” as well as a “whole-hearted Marxist.”

Now, none of this is really new to us Baby Boomers. As a child I remember hearing stories about the married MLK having affairs. My husband, a few years older than I, recalls these rumors as well. However, it was also no secret that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover despised Dr. King. Hoover’s FBI even sent a letter to King, urging him to commit suicide lest they release his “evil” secrets.

All of this supposed dirt on MLK is pretty rich, especially when compared with the sexual issues that Hoover had.

Here at Victory Girls, we honor Dr. King. And speaking for myself, I will continue to do so. Those documents are the stuff of tabloid garbage, and it’s disgraceful that an agency of the federal government collected it.

But this brings up another conundrum.

What if — what if — even a little bit of the salacious information is true? Do we stop honoring this man? After all, if King treated women like sex objects, the pussy hat crowd should despise him. That’s Trump behavior.

So, let’s tear down his monument, too. When is Antifa going to show up with spray paint and hammers?

Oh, wait. Because the Left judges the worthiness of historical characters by how they align on their invented scale of political correctness, they are more than willing to brush away rumors about a liberal hero. King fit neatly into President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program. So there’s nothing to see here, move along.

But this hypocrisy also exposes a vast chasm between conservatism and the new Left. The Left thinks they can establish utopia — for the right people, of course — provided they tear down the past. Erase the history they don’t approve of. And then rebuild society with their vision of perfection.

We don’t see it that way. As conservatives, we recognize all history as being valuable. We relish such knowledge, because learning about great men and women allows us to stand atop their shoulders and “see farther . . .only because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time,” as Russell Kirk wrote. But Kirk also realized that these giants of history were imperfect, writing that conservatives recognize “their principle of imperfectability.” Moreover, Judeo-Christian tradition teaches that we’re all sinners, and Martin Luther King, Jr., as a Baptist minister, would’ve believed that, too. Yet the Left rejects such principles, and they think that if their ideology prevails, we just might have a heaven on earth.

To this, Kirk said:

The ideologues who promise the perfection of man and society have converted a great part of the twentieth-century world into a terrestrial hell.

And if the 21st century Left gets its way, we’ll witness yet another terrestrial hell.

Meantime, we should continue to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a great man who made a positive impact upon race relations in America. Moreover, we should continue to observe and respect all those men and women whose lives — whose very imperfect lives — helped to shape this nation into greatness.