For the first time in decades, federal court records related to the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have been unsealed, raising questions about timing, motive and truth.
It comes months after the president ordered the declassification of documents tied not only to King’s killing but also the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.
Monday’s release includes thousands of pages, giving scholars, journalists and the public a rare window into what the FBI and other agencies were saying and doing at the time of King’s death.
But not everyone’s on board. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by King, opposed the release, citing privacy and family trauma. King’s children, Martin III and Bernice, urge the public to read the files with restraint, respect and full historical context.
King was targeted by the FBI — wiretaps, hotel bugs, smear campaigns — and the same bureau tasked with investigating his death also tried to destroy him while he was alive.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
