Research Shows How Public Attitudes Toward MLK Have Changed Since 1960s
A new Pew Research Center survey finds division between Black and White Americans on the question of progress toward racial equality.
Slightly more than half (52 percent) of those surveyed in April 2023 said the nation has made significant or fair strides toward achieving Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of racial equality. Only 30 percent of Black Americans said the nation is making progress, compared to nearly two-thirds (58 percent) of White Americans.
Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the iconic March on Washington, which was at that time the largest ever gathering for civil rights, Pew researchers noted how racial attitudes toward King improved over the decades, leading to this moment when the vast majority of all Americans view King favorably.
Today, 81 percent of Americans say that King had a positive impact on the Nation, with just 3 percent who believe the civil rights leader’s influence harmed the country. But when King was alive, views about him were sharply divided along racial lines.
King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Three months earlier, a Gallup survey found that only 41 percent of Americans viewed him favorably, according to the Pew Center. That figure included 92 percent of Black Americans but only 35 percent of Whites.
Three years after King’s famous speech, when more Americans knew of King and the Civil Rights Movement, his overall favorability rating decreased to 33 percent in a Gallup poll. Those who viewed him as highly unfavorable increased from 25 percent in 1963 to 44 percent in 1966.
By August 2011, the slain civil rights leader’s overall favorable rating skyrocketed to 94 percent. That figure included 100 percent of Black and 93 percent of White Americans.
The survey of 5,073 adults for the new Pew Center study was conducted from April 10 to April 16, 2023.
