Many conspiracy theories have arose through the decades, in the ’40s it was Roswell. Presently, many Americans live in fear of Obama being a Muslim. English professor Dana Crotwell said during her high school years, she was fascinated with the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
For Crotwell, that incident resonated with her up through her high school years when she could understand the gravity of it. King’s death is just one of many conspiracies that resonate over death.
” I didn’t experience it, but I don’t think it was just one random guy who killed him and happened to be a racist petty criminal,” Crotwell said.
King was staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. It was 6:10 p.m. when a shot rang out, killing King and leaving his legacy spread across the balcony in cold blood. This is where the conspiracy begins.
“J. Edgar Hoover said he wanted King disgraced by any means necessary,” Crotwell said.
The believed killer was James Earl Ray, a high school dropout who almost made a clear getaway if it wasn’t for one little detail: Ray dropped the gun he used to shoot King at the scene of the crime. This is a wrinkle in the crime that Crotwell acknowledged did seem “too perfect.”
“In that whole time period of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., it’s interesting they were all assassinated around the same time and they were all people speaking for equality and community,” Crotwell said.
Crotwell is not the only one who agrees with the notion that
Ray couldn’t have acted alone. King’s son, Dexter, according to an article in trutv.com, said that he met with Ray and believed he was not the shooter. Dexter, along with the rest of King’s family, shared the same feelings.
The murder of King was one of the biggest conspiracy theories of the ’60s. Over the decades, many theories have formed about the moments that shaped American history. History professor Maria Brown believes the biggest conspiracy in American history was the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s.
“That threat goes back to the 1930s, it was all about upholding the American way,” Brown said.
In the late ’40s through the ’50s, America was in a scare that Communism had spread through society. People were called to hearings for anything as small as attending a Communist party meeting, and Sen.
Joe McCarthy, R-Wisc. was at the center of it.
“What was interesting is that the accusations had no proof; all they had was the word of Joe McCarthy,” Brown said.
Much like the communist hunts of that era, 50 years later America finds itself involved in the midst of another kind of witch hunt.
Brown acknowledges that as of 2010, one of the biggest conspiracies involve the constant belief that America’s first black President Barack Obama is a Muslim. Most of the attacks Brown said are due to his race. “Because Obama is an African American, some people can’t get over that,” Brown said.
Conspiracy theories, Brown said, are formed because of the fact that Americans don’t understand the history of how America blossomed and are often confused about their place in society and how they fit the world.
“Conspiracy theories are a reactionary form of nationalism,” Brown said. “These ideas and notions are perpetuated because people are insecure about their place in society.”