The dispute would have pitted King’s two sons against his surviving daughter, who were at odds over whether to sell the medal.

In ancient Greece, the Greeks honored victors in athletic competitions and in poetic meets with a laurel wreath. In allusion to that honor, we call a winner of the Nobel Prize a 'Nobel Laureate.'

Dr. Paul Krugman, the hyper-productive New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate, has produced a flood of fiscal factoids. He argues that the only way to put the major economies around the world back on track is to "stimulate" them via deficit-financed government spending.

A half-century later, my father's words are still powerful, still relevant. Justice, racial equality, and the Beloved Community that he often described are still, to paraphrase Victor Hugo, ideas whose time has come. In fact, their time is long overdue.