It seems every Martin Luther King Day white Republicans march out the name of King and pretend he was on the side of the conservative movement as part of his fight for civil rights. Republican talking heads like Joe Walsh take to Twitter to announce that King would be against the Black Lives Matter movement and would proclaim that “all lives matter.”

The white-washing of King has taken place ever since his death, but the conservative’s in the U.S. have always had a special gift for proclaiming the message of King was in line with their message and co-opting his success as their success.

Yet, Republicans ignore one of King’s most important commitments in his struggle – his vocal anti-capitalism. King was anything but a modern day Republican.

Below are five of King’s best quotes against capitalism.

“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic… [Capitalism] started out with a noble and high motive… but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has out-lived its usefulness.” – Letter to Coretta Scott, July 18, 1952. “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” – From a speech to the Negro American Labor Council, 1961. “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.” – Delivered during a speech to SCLC Board, March 30, 1967. “Capitalism forgets that life is social. And the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis.” – Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967. “In a sense, you could say we’re involved in the class struggle.” – Quote in the New York Times reporter, 1968.

[Image: USMC / Public Domain]