Hidden in Plain Sight: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Radical Vision

This unit attempts to help students penetrate the curtain of clichés and lies the corporate media have erected around Martin Luther King, Jr., in order to make him “safe” for public consumption. My objectives for students who participate in these lessons are that they will:

1. Explicitly identify the ways in which Martin Luther King, Jr. is portrayed in the mass media, and specifically, which of his ideas are communicated to the public.
2. Read and discuss a range of King’s ideas almost completely unknown to most of the public today.
3. Reflect upon why many of King’s ideas introduced in this lesson are almost never referenced in the mass media or in U.S. History textbooks

Developed and piloted by Craig Gordon, Fremont High School in collaboration with Urban Dreams and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project in January, 2001

Here is the lesson from the OUSD Urban Dreams website.