UN0500 Effective Scholarship

Assignment: Case Study Report on a Research/Ethical

Misconduct Incident
Submitted by: Sandesh Gandhi
(sandeshg@mtu.edu)

09/17/2016

Plagiarism by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Nobel peace prize winner and one the
greatest and inspirational leader in the world history. His leadership in civil
right movement in the US has revolutionized the equality in society and
taken to the stage
where is it now. Kids learn about him in history
textbooks and thus he would need no more introduction.
Though his political-social career has given the world a strong message of
equality, his academic career has had a bad record following a proven case
of plagiarism in his academic research papers including his doctoral
dissertation as well as his speeches. It is proven that while researching in
Boston University for his doctoral degree, King plagiarized from another
author Jack Boozer who had done research in similar subject to Kings, A
Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and
Henry Nelson Wieman.
Kings wife Coretta Scott King donated his papers to Stanford University
Kings papers project. In late 1980s, while papers were being catalogued and
organized, the staff of the project realized that Kings doctoral dissertation
was plagiarized from Jack Boozers work. It was first reported in 1989 in the
Sunday Telegraph and then Wall Street Journal in 1990. Several newspapers
followed up the story until 1991 when Boston University themselves
conducted a thorough investigation in the matter and declared Kings
dissertations were plagiarized.
The reasons for Kings to commit this academic misconduct could be many.
None of his academic papers and dissertations were detected in his life, but
this misconduct was reported only after his death. A report from his
professors suggests that King was trained on and had a good idea of
academic misconduct policies. However, the extent of his plagiaries suggests
that he knew that he was, if nothing else, going around academic norms.
1) The reviews of his draft of dissertation by Prof. DeWolf and Prof. Paul
Schilling did not highlight any major issue with his citation practices
and instead commended King for the topic.

2) Some of Kings notecards had proper paraphrasing but many other had
poor paraphrasing. That is because King rarely noted down citations
while taking notes.
3) His plagiaries were deeply engrained meaning the bad practices
continued from a long time at Boston and Crozer. However, the grades
in those Universities in the ranges of A-, must have suggested King
that there was no issue with his practices.
Thus, negligence from King and failure in detection from academic
authorities had caused this disaster.
Though the misconduct was proven, Dr. Kings doctoral degree was not
revoked, since the investigating still opined that his dissertation still made an
intelligent contribution to scholarship. However, a letter is attached with
Kings dissertation, notifying the reader about plagiarism in numerous
passages. This controversy also added to the numerous controversies King
had to face in his lifetime, tarnishing his image by a bit.
Thus, Kings reputation as an academic scholar was harmed following this
case. Also, reputation of Boston University was deeply harmed after their
failure to detect plagiarism in its early phases.
However, except for these two, people in United States or for that matter,
followers of King did not deter from looking up to him as an inspirational
leader. Except for this doctoral degree, all achievements of King were outside
academia. The values he created for people to fight injustice and strive for
equality did not deter because of this controversy even decades after his
death.
However, to avoid this misconduct and have a clean record, this is what I
think King should have done as an alternative. This was a case of credits
being completely absent from the dissertation. So following a proper
crediting and citing practice is the best solution. Since he found similar work
done by his colleague Jack Boozer, he could have officially asked Boozer for
permission to use his work for his further research. Moreover, instead of
using the whole passages, he could have written his own interpretation from
Boozers work. Most importantly, the name of Jack Boozer should have been
included in credits and citations.
To add another layer of prevention, if he knew from his knowledge that his
work is not completely plagiarism free and he was assuming it is acceptable
only because universities never questioned those practices, he s hould have
resorted to other institutions as well to test his citing practices. Also, again,
following a proper citing practice stays as the ultimate solution.

Though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may have intentionally or unintentionally
committed this mistake/misconduct, the investigation committee have given
out a decision accepted by society and his followers. He still stays an
inspirational leader. As stated earlier, the impact of this controversy is
negligible compared to his non-academic achievements.

References:
1) 5 Great People who Plagiarized, Plagiarism Today, Feb, 2015
(https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2015/02/10/5-great-people-whoplagiarized/)
2) David Mikkelson, Four Things About King, snopes.com, July 2003
http://www.snopes.com/history/american/mlking.asp
3) Radin, Charles A. (October 11, 1991). "Panel Confirms Plagiarism by
King at BU". The Boston Globe. p. 1
4) Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King, The New York Times,
Oct 11, 1991
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-findsplagiarism-by-dr-king.html
5) Plagiarism Seen by Scholars In Kings Ph.D. Dissertation, The New
York Times, Nov 10, 1990
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/10/us/plagiarism-seen-by-scholars-inking-s-phd-dissertation.html?pagewanted=all
6) Ralph E. Luker (2004-12-21). "Grades and Patronage". CLIOPATRIA: A
Group Blog. History News Network hnn.us. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
7) "King's
Ph.D.
dissertation,
Retrieved November 7, 2014.

with

attached

note" (PDF).