The administration of the United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump has released a large number of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., including FBI files on the surveillance of this civil rights leader.
A court order had prevented the release of these documents – totaling 230.000 pages – since 1977. Prominent members of King’s family opposed the release. In a joint statement, his two surviving children condemned “any attempt to misuse these documents with the aim of damaging our father’s legacy.”
Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, was assassinated in Memphis on April 4th, 1968, at the age of 39. James Earl Ray, a career criminal, pleaded guilty to the murder but later withdrew his confession.
Martin III and Bernice King, the two surviving children of the famous activist, who were informed in advance of the release, said on Monday: “We ask everyone who will analyze these documents to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for the pain our family still feels. The release of these materials must be viewed in full historical context.”
“During our father’s life, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing campaign of disinformation and surveillance led by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” their statement said.
The family emphasized that this surveillance stripped King of “the dignity and freedoms that belong to every private citizen.”
They also recalled a 1999 civil court ruling for wrongful death, in which the jury concluded that King was not killed by a lone racist assassin but was the victim of a broad conspiracy.
In January, Trump ordered the declassification of documents not only about King’s assassination but also the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy.
A statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Monday said that the King files had been “gathering dust in the archives of various federal institutions for years, until today.”
The documents include “internal FBI memoranda” and “previously unseen CIA materials” related to the search for King’s killer, the ODNI noted.
The release was coordinated with the FBI, the Department of Justice, the National Archives, and the CIA.
“U.S. citizens deserve answers, decades after the horrific murder of one of our nation’s greatest leaders,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
However, not all members of King’s family opposed the release. Alveda King, who refers to Martin Luther King as “my uncle,” stated: “I’m grateful to President Trump and DNI Director Gabbard for fulfilling the promise of transparency. While we continue to grieve his death, the declassification and publication of these documents represent a historic step toward the truth U.S. citizens deserve.”
Trump’s critics point out that the release comes at a time when his administration is being accused of a lack of transparency regarding documents on Jeffrey Epstein, the influential sex offender whose 2019 death in prison was ruled a suicide.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton called the release of King’s files “a desperate attempt to divert attention from the Epstein documents scandal and the erosion of Trump’s credibility in the public eye.”
Before his arrest, King’s assassin James Earl Ray fled the U.S. to Canada, Portugal, and the United Kingdom (UK), where he robbed a bank.
After being extradited to Memphis, he pleaded guilty in 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later claimed to have been a scapegoat used by unknown conspirators and tried to withdraw his confession, but the courts rejected this several times. Ray died in 1998 at the age of 70.
