ACLU Celebrates MLK Day with FBI Jab
On this MLK day holiday, the blog of the ACLU has some recriminations for the FBI’s treatment of the civil rights movement hero.
“Over the course of two decades, the FBI went to war against Dr. Martin Luther King,” their January 16 blog post begins.
Under J. Edgar Hoover’s direction, the FBI grew obsessed with King as his political power and influence grew, the ACLU writes, leading the bureau to use a variety of tactics in the ‘50s and ‘60s to discredit King, mounting a “full-court press to portray him as a Communist provocateur, attempting to disrupt tributes after Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and repeatedly bugging his hotel rooms.”
When Congress first considered making King’s birthday a holiday, in 1969, the FBI even tried to covertly tarnish his reputation posthumously, the ACLU writes.
ACLU points to its 2002 report which highlighted the campaign against King, what they call “one of the sorriest chapters in FBI history.”
To ACLU report is available at the above link; to read more click here.
Posted: January 16th, 2012 under FBI, News Story.
Comments: 1