So now a documented speech on economic opinion is National Inquirer material?
Have you read the rest of that speech, or just that one portion?
But regardless of what he went on to say in that speech (which was denouncing Communism as an answer to our country's woes, BTDubs), how about we look at Communism for what it is - a political and economic theory. Communism is not inherently evil; we just have a knee-jerk reaction that it is thanks to prominent American politicians who tied the concept of Communism to dictatorships that killed millions of people (think Mao's China and the Soviet Union). It's certainly up for debate whether Marx's concept of Communism would inevitably have to include aspects of a military dictatorship in order to succeed, but these "evil regimes" are not representative of the basic ideals of Communism.
Not only should we look at what Communism actually is, but we should look at the period in which all of this occurred. During the 1950's and 1960's, there were still many, many people who thought that Communism could work if it was done properly. Communism had not yet been truly proven to be untenable at that point in time, and it was much more common to have Communist ideals then than it is now. So even if MLK, Jr. were truly a Communist, or even just influenced by Communist ideals, it wasn't that out of the ordinary in that time period. Especially when you consider that the Communist party was practically the only party trying to advocate equal rights for awhile (this
NPR read is a great overview of this).
Aside from all of the above, how did Communism truly factor into MLK, Jr.'s stances? The man never openly advocated for a Communist system. Although he mentioned Communism in one speech (and then shortly thereafter explained that it wasn't the solution), and although he surrounded himself with those who were arguably Communist, his positions were advanced by referencing the Bible and Christian doctrines. So what is the argument here? That if MLK, Jr. had lived and continued to be successful politically, we would have went down a slippery slope of Communism? Ignore what he actually said and did during his life, and instead presume to know what he would have done had he been given more time?