Martin Luther King Jr. Didn’t ‘Like Conflict,’ Says Biographer [Video]

Despite being a revered leader of the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was actually conflict avoidant, says biographer Jonathan Eig.

In an interview published by NPR’s Book of the Day podcast on Jan. 3, the author, who penned the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography King: A Life, looked back on the activist’s renowned life and legacy, as well as his inclination to avoid problems when he could.

“One of the interesting things about King is that he’s a protest leader who really does not like conflict,” Eig told NPR. “He is always going out of his way to avoid conflict with people who are his elders, who seem to be his superiors in some ways, people like Roy Wilkins at the NAACP or A. Philip Randolph, and that plays out too when he becomes a negotiator with presidents, and he really doesn’t like conflict.”

“He has to push himself, really, out of his comfort zone to argue, to debate, to …