Most, if not all, of the audience didn’t know or didn’t care whether King borrowed from another sermon. Many young preachers learned by trying out others’ words. When he’d lifted a speech in high school, King had done it from the most obvious source possible: a book of prizewinning student speeches. Now he’d borrowed from one of the nation’s most popular radio preachers. In later years, when he was confronted on his sourcing, he would speak forthrightly and unashamedly about his influences. King wasn’t concerned with plagiarism; his goal was to move audiences.
