The Self-Satisfaction of Retroactive Accomplishment, Periodical Edition

In 1963, The Atlantic ran the text of MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Here they reprint it on the occasion of the day. Given the direction the magazine has taken over the past 12 years, the reprint dramatically illuminates the change. Once upon a time they took such a man seriously, despite the smears and libels against him by the regressive elements of the nation. Now, they publish work on behalf of those very same regressive elements. If a man like King were to appear tomorrow, they would send their smallest thinkers to McArdelize him, and question how serious such a leftist rabble-rouser could be.