Today is #MLKDay. Every year on this day I try to spread awareness of the fact that Dr. King at the end of his life, before it was taken from him and us, was fighting for universal basic income. Most people still don't know this. Know his words.
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If you read Dr. King's writing on UBI, you'll see that his support was founded upon the abolition of poverty (because it is immoral) in the most direct way possible - cash. He said we keep trying indirect ways like education and housing, but those too would be improved by cash. 
Dr. King was also ahead of his time in seeing the importance in a nation of mechanized abundance to turn non-producers into consumers. He saw the problem as being one of distribution, not production. We have no shortage of goods. People have a shortage of money to pay for them.
I see the argument occasionally made that Dr. King would be against a UBI of $1000/mo as being insufficient. We can't know for sure what he would think about @AndrewYang's Freedom Dividend, but I think he would see it as I see it, a starting point, not an ending point.
Dr. King believed that UBI should grow over time with productivity. I too believe that's the way to go in designing an optimal UBI. As machines do more & more work for us, it only makes sense that our floor should rise accordingly. When we're 2x as productive, UBI should double.
Dr. King also recognized wage slavery for what it is, and understood what UBI would mean for intrinsic motivation. He even quoted Henry George who also recognized that the most valuable work of all is not done for the sake of survival, but because we choose to do it voluntarily.
Finally, and most importantly, Dr. King saw poverty for what it is. He compared it to cannibalism. It has absolutely no justification in a nation as rich as ours in the year 2020. It is archaic. It is immoral. And we must abolish directly with an unconditional basic income floor.
