For all of us covering the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we have described him in several ways—as an activist, an influencer, a commentator. All are technically accurate. But on his BlazeTV program Friday, Glenn Beck argued that none of those labels do justice to Kirk’s true legacy. Beck insisted there’s a far more accurate way to understand what Kirk was fighting for.
“We must stop calling Charlie anything other than a civil rights leader,” Beck declared. “We need to plant that stake deep. It is time that we point out that what he was doing was not politics.”
Beck argued that Kirk’s mission was larger than partisanship: “What he was doing was trying to stand up for people’s civil rights, to show people how a civilization is not a civilization unless you can have a dialogue with people who are diametrically opposed to you, that don’t believe anything that you believe in, and yet you can have a civil dialogue—and how important that is.”
At the heart of that struggle, Beck said, was the right to free speech. “That gunman was trying to take that right away from him and from you and everyone else,” Beck said. “‘Shut up. You will be silenced. You will not say those things.’ And there has been a force in this country to try to convince people that you don’t have a right, that you have a responsibility to silence others. You don’t.”
ICYMI: Here's How Charlie Kirk's Killer Was Caught
In Beck’s view, Kirk embodied the American tradition of open debate. “In this country, one of our main civil rights is we can express ourselves the way we feel we need to express ourselves, and I’m sorry if you don’t like it. You have to just take it and then say, ‘I’d like to have a discussion with you on that. I’d like to know how you got there. I’d like to have the opportunity to argue against that.’ And you have that right to argue against it. And hopefully, if we are more like Charlie Kirk, we’re having those dialogues with each other in a civilized fashion.”
Beck went so far as to put Kirk in the same category as one of the most iconic figures in American history. “Make no mistake, Charlie Kirk was a civil rights leader as much as Martin Luther King,” he said, before suggesting that cities should begin naming streets after him. “I’m waiting to see the first city that will make a Charlie Kirk Boulevard. Phoenix, you should be the one. There’s a Martin Luther King Boulevard, there should be a Charlie Kirk Boulevard.”
For Beck, Kirk’s contribution stood in stark contrast to groups like Black Lives Matter. “Charlie Kirk was a civil rights leader and we must take that for him and own that. Because all of these so-called civil rights leaders. ... Black Lives Matter, that was a money scam. That had nothing to do with anything other than money and power. Charlie was actually fighting for civil rights.”
Stop calling Charlie Kirk a 'conservative activist.' He was a civil rights leader. pic.twitter.com/5cqdmDqtol
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) September 12, 2025
Glenn Beck’s words cut through the noise and get to the truth: Charlie Kirk wasn’t just an activist or a commentator—he was fighting for something far greater. Kirk stood for the most fundamental of American rights: the freedom to speak openly, to debate without fear, and to push back against those who would rather silence us than engage. That is what real civil rights leadership looks like.
Glenn Beck nailed it: Charlie Kirk led a civil rights fight for free speech—and the elites hated him for it. PJ Media exposes the stories the mainstream media buries, every day. Join PJ Media VIP with promo code FIGHT for 60% off and support fearless reporting. Don’t wait—stand with us now.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member