King's views were heavily influenced by his years studying up north at Crozer seminary, a left wing institution where he studied the India independence movement intensively and in particular the works of Gandhi and Reinhold Neibhur. King adopted Gandhi's non-violent, integrationist views, which put him at odds with many other black leaders who favored a separatist movement.

At the time this included people like Malcolm X, who pretty openly detested King's politics. There were those who openly advocated non-integration, either combining the black areas of several southern states into a new black nation called New Africa or something, or a Back to Africa movement (demanding billions of dollars from the u.s. government to help blacks repatriate to Africa) Even today you will find some of the more radical black leaders (louis farrakhan and others) who don't like King's ideas, who don't think either a non-violent movement or especially an integrationist movement will ever work.

It was only the strength of King's commitment, the power of his charisma and the loyalty people had to him that prevented these and other radical movements from gaining steam. Martin Luther King quite literally saved this country, and that to me far outweighs whether he was personally sexist, homophobic, or whatever.