I admit i have never heard of Abernathy............there may be a reason....................as in a cover up.......American history text books are written in such a way........to emphasize certain things........and stay clear of some issues.............

The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy was a giant in the historic campaign for justice and equality, but history has treated him like a minor footnote.

As the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s right-hand man and most trusted friend, Abernathy played a momentous role.

But the more the civil rights story is told, the more Abernathy’s role is reduced. The irony is that in the effort to chronicle the visionary struggle against injustice, an enormous one is being carried out.

Abernathy was the one King strategized with at night when the other aides were asleep. Most pictures of King show Abernathy at his side, at the White House with President Lyndon Johnson or in Selma at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Abernathy shared King’s dream — and most of his jail cells.

But Abernathy, who died in 1990, has never been forgiven for writing about the dalliances of an unfaithful King. For destroying the perfect-man myth, Abernathy has been relegated to the historical sidelines of a revolution he was instrumental in developing.