Sudden Release of Thousands of Pages from Documents on Assassination of ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’
“Tulsi Gabbard,” Director of National Intelligence of the United States, released thousands of pages of documents related to the assassination of “Martin Luther King Jr.”
Dr. “Martin Luther King Jr.” was a pastor, civil rights activist, and one of the most prominent figures in the anti-racism struggle throughout the history of the United States, who played an important role in advancing the rights of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s through emphasizing civil disobedience and peaceful protests. He became a symbol of justice and equality, particularly through his historic “I Have a Dream” speech and his leadership of marches in the southern states of America.
Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, when he was only 39 years old, in the city of “Memphis,” Tennessee, while he had traveled there to support a strike by municipal service workers. He was shot by a person named “James Earl Ray” and killed. His assassination triggered a wave of nationwide protests in America, which is considered a turning point in the history of the civil rights movement. “James Earl Ray” was a convicted criminal who confessed to his murder but later recanted his confession.
The 243,000-page documents of Martin Luther King’s assassination, which were in the possession of the FBI, were prohibited from public disclosure by court order in 1977. However, now, upon the order of Donald Trump, President of the United States, the American government has proceeded to release some pages of these documents.
Last Monday, July 21, Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence of the United States, declassified and released these classified documents, which had been ordered for release in the month of January. These documents, which relate to the assassination of Martin Luther King, former President John F. Kennedy, and his brother Senator Robert Kennedy, had been sealed for decades by intelligence agencies and their release had been prohibited.
Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement regarding the release of these documents: “The American people have waited nearly 60 years to see the full extent of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are committed to leaving no stone unturned and providing complete transparency about this fateful and tragic event in our nation’s history, and I express my sincerest gratitude to the King family for their support.”
Following the release of these documents yesterday, the King family, who opposed the release of these documents, issued a statement through their two surviving children, Martin III and Bernice. In this statement, while condemning any misuse of these documents with the aim of weakening their father’s legacy, they wrote: “We ask those who deal with these documents to handle them with compassion, restraint, and respect for our family’s endless grief. The release of these documents should be examined in the full historical context of them. During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by a campaign of misinformation and surveillance that was aggressive, intrusive, and alarming, directed by ‘J. Edgar Hoover,’ the first Director of the FBI, and through that agency by the Department of Justice.”
Martin Luther’s children added in this statement: “Government surveillance resulted in “invasion of privacy” and “deliberate attacks on truth” that deprived Martin Luther King, an ordinary citizen, of his dignity and freedoms.”
