‘Smooth’ and ‘Alternative’ Patriotisms: Chicago and the decline of a civil rights strategy

At the Riverside Church in New York, April 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. did not just speak out against the war in Vietnam, he was in many ways defending one of the underlying ideological strategies of the entire civil rights movement. He urged people to avoid confusing dissent with disloyalty, stressed that he voiced his opinion to save the soul of America, and cautioned against what he called “smooth patriotism”. This article forwards and explores the idea that a significant ideological cha..