Newly Discovered Martin Luther King, Jr. Bootleg Is A Righteous Groove

Today we commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born more or less on this day in 1929, a common baby who couldn't even walk or talk, let alone march. But, like most babies, he grew; unlike most babies, he became the leader of a national freedom movement that in many ways still defines American attitudes on race and class.

That's why today is a good day to pretend we just found the above-YouTube'd old recording of MLK's speech commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Some interns at the New York State Museum ran across the recording back in November, but whatever, it's a nice thing.

If you don't want to listen to King read his excellent speech, here is a transcript. Here is our favorite part, because "history":

Lincoln’s torments are well known, his vacillations were facts. In the seething cauldron of sixty-two and sixty-three Lincoln was called the “Baboon President” in the North, and “coward”, assassin, and savage in the South.

Ergo, Barack Obama will be remembered by future Republicans as our greatest president since Hoover.

Finally, if you are burned out on Martin Luther King, Jr. then you are bad and wrong, because it's one day, people, for the love of Martin Luther King, Jr.! Literally, for his love. The other 364.25 days, please feel free to be venal and petty as always, and bitch and whine whenever your preferred media sludgepumps deviate from gurking out your preferred flavor of sludge. It's what our imagination's version of the Rev. Dr. King would have wanted.

  Follow Alex on Twitter. Your descendants will be proud when historians unearth his feed. 

[ YouTube via NPR via New York State Museum ]