Progressives love to quote that one letter, but it's an outlier from the more universalist principles he repeatedly said in everything else he wrote and spoke (though people are complicated and can simultaneously hold conflicting views or change their views over time).
Non-violent civil disobedience can obviously be good (Rosa Parks, protest walks, etc.), but when it becomes shouting down others so they can't speak it's crossed into something illiberal and bad.
The ability for people who deeply disagree to speak and engage in a high level of discourse is how classical liberalism works. Often people hold deeply held beliefs, and often those beliefs are wrong - if persuasion is not on the table you don't improve your society - you just descend into political violence.
Talking to people you deeply disagree with (we're doing that now!) is a virtuous thing and it's something MLK did repeatedly with universalist principles that harkened back to the founding fathers and the rights shared by every individual, it's something both MLK and the founding fathers understood.
Non-violent civil disobedience can obviously be good (Rosa Parks, protest walks, etc.), but when it becomes shouting down others so they can't speak it's crossed into something illiberal and bad.
The ability for people who deeply disagree to speak and engage in a high level of discourse is how classical liberalism works. Often people hold deeply held beliefs, and often those beliefs are wrong - if persuasion is not on the table you don't improve your society - you just descend into political violence.
Talking to people you deeply disagree with (we're doing that now!) is a virtuous thing and it's something MLK did repeatedly with universalist principles that harkened back to the founding fathers and the rights shared by every individual, it's something both MLK and the founding fathers understood.