While I can't set the record straight without violating my own sense of what is proper and decent, I think I can make some attempt to render justice to the dead without causing too much pain to the living. In the first place, Martin and I were away more than we were at home; and while this was no excuse for extramarital affairs, it was a reason. Some men are better able to bear such deprivations than others, though all of us in SCLC headquarters had our weak moments. I don't think it had anything to do with our respective views of what was right and wrong. We all understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex outside of marriage. It was just that he had a particularly difficult time with that temptation. His own principal explanation of that difficulty is one I choose not to repeat here. But in addition to his personal vulnerability, he was also a man who attracted women, even when he didn’t intend to, and attracted them in droves. Part of his appeal was his predominant role in the black community and part of it was personal. During the last ten years of his life, Martin Luther King was the most important black man in America. That fact alone endowed him with an aura of power and greatness that women found very appealing. He was a hero — the greatest hero of his age — and women are always attracted to a hero.

But he also had a personal charm that ingratiated him with members of the opposite sex. He was always gracious and courteous to women, whether they were attractive to him or not. He had perfect manners. He was well educated. He was warm and friendly. He could make them laugh....