Why did Martin Luther King plagiarize his work?

Answer 1

Yes, there is credible evidence that King plagiarized some materials he incorporated into his PhD. His dissertation, written at Boston University, contained sources that were poorly attributed and in some cases, what he wrote was very close to the essays he was using. For reasons that are unclear, this did not get detected by his dissertation advisors, and in fact, it was not discovered until long after his death.

Like many great orators, King had a number of influences, some of which showed up in his greatest speeches over the years. But most scholars are hesitant to accuse him of plagiarizing, since he acknowledged those who influenced him and did not try to hide those influences. It has been suggested, for example, that his great "I Have a Dream" speech has some similarity to a 1952 speech by another preacher, Archibald Carey Jr., but an analysis of both speeches shows that Carey's is quite different from King's. Thus, it is correct to say King was guilty of plagiarism as a graduate student, but years later, he was much more thorough about his sources and about more careful about making the words his own.

Answer 2

Martin Luther King plagiarized his work, because God told him to do so.