Polling is just a snapshot in time ⌚

That adage rings so true when it comes to the public perception of Martin Luther King in the mid 1960s compared to the decades after his death. Polling by many firms captured his deep unpopularity with many white people during the second half of the sixties compared to his resurrection in popularity the seventies and even much more so in recent decades.

75 percent of Americans disapproved of the actions of Martin Luther King in early 1968, something that obviously would change in the decades that followed his death. Pew Research did a similar poll on MLK approval in August 1966 and found 66 percent of Americans disapproved of MLK. By 2011 when they asked again, only 3 percent of Americans disapproved of MLK.

Society’s views can evolve both over time and often quite quickly too. What was true even a few months ago may not be true today.