Was MLK a prophet?

Although the public school system, at least in my own limited experience, shies away from even admitting that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister, there are a great many churches that point to him a modern-day prophet. Labeling anyone as a prophet is a complicated business and has been for some thousands of years (see Deut. 13, 18). While the prophetic quality of King's message is endlessly debatable and depends more on what you bring to the analysis than the actual content of his speeches and sermons, I think a more interesting avenue to pursue is to compare King's life and work with those of the Old Testament prophets and see what correspondences, if any, exist. What one finds, I believe, is almost an exact replication of the pattern set by the likes of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, and Hosea and elucidated by Rabbi Abraham Heschel in his book The Prophets. Some of the distinguishing features of this pattern is a moment of call to an unsought after prophetic task, a visionary quality, a great sensitivity to evil and injustice, an engagement in the indictment of contemporary society, and a life tinged with agony.

Perhaps a more interesting line of inquiry would be into the consequences of the acceptance of modern prophecy into mainline denominations Is it possible that King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" could be canonized as some have sought to do? What new voices would the church be opened to? How would the church incorporate these voices into its regular worship and communal life? Could it be open to such voices without causing increased denominationalism?