claim: A photograph shows Martin Luther King Jr. flipping the bird at a photographer.
origin: An old image purportedly showing Martin Luther King Jr. showing his middle finger in an unmistakable gesture to a photographerÂ was thrown back into circulation in May 2017 by the â€œClassic Picsâ€ Twitter account: This image has been shared with a wide variety of commentary. For instance, it was once shared on the â€œOld School Coolâ€ section of Reddit as a picture of a â€œlegend,â€ and the white supremacist web siteÂ Daily StormerÂ has used this image to paint King in a negative light. Regardless of the original intent â€” the earliest iteration we could findÂ was posted in January 2012 to a BlogspotÂ siteÂ on a page of random and unrelated images â€” this image is not a real photograph. The original photograph was taken on 19 June 1964, and showed King giving a peace sign (a hand gesture involving two fingers raised in a â€œvâ€) after hearing that the civil rights bill had passed the senate: