7. King Plagiarized His Doctoral Dissertation
Archivists working on the Martin Luther King Papers Project in the 1980s alleged King heavily plagiarized the dissertation he prepared for his Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. According to his accusers, King heavily borrowed verbatim material from a variety of sources without including proper attribution − or any attribution at all! Anyone who remembers their college composition courses knows that’s a big no-no, but somehow the alleged plagiarism slipped by King’s professor.
In 1991 a committee of scholars from Boston University reviewed the allegations and concluded that King, indeed, plagiarized his dissertation, but it did not recommend the revocation of King’s doctorate. Still, the committee attached a letter to King’s dissertation in the university library, advising readers that numerous passages lacked appropriate quotations and citations of sources. In its decision, the committee found King’s continued use of uncited material equaled “a straightforward breach of academic norms and that constitutes plagiarism as commonly understood.”
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