Martin Luther King Jr & the FBI
The FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was once called by American Indian movement activist John Trudell, as the Federal Bureau of Intimidation. The FBI has a long history of persecuting people for thought crimes, having the wrong political ideas. J. Edgar Hoover was the Bureau’s first director and he served in that post for almost 50 years. He ran the FBI as an unchallenged lord of the manor and his agents were serfs to do his bidding. Hoover had a particular animosity for and loathing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the Civil Rights movement. He called King “the most notorious liar in the country.” President Kennedy and his attorney general brother Robert signed off on Hoover’s request to wiretap Dr. King. Using infiltrators, the spread of rumors, the fabrication of evidence, and media manipulation, the FBI launched a full-scale smear campaign to discredit Dr. King and the movement he led. It was all done of course in the name of “national security.”
Recorded at Pacific University.
Speaker
Jules Boykoff
Jules Boykoff is professor of political science at Pacific University. Before embarking on an academic career he represented the U.S. Olympic Soccer Team in international competition. His articles have appeared in The Guardian and The New York Times. He is the author of Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the U.S., Celebration Capitalism, and Activism and the Olympics.
NM Listener –
Terrific piece on MLK and the FBI tonight. Thanks.
Cassandra Butler –
This is a spellbinding account of J. Edgar Hoover’s perverted and racist obsession with Martin Luther King. I recall the era along with his salacious attempts to destroy Dr. King’s heroic work Fortunately, the same racism Dr. King was fighting was the same racism that discredited the veracity of those attempts. Outstanding and well-documented program.
David –
Near overwhelming overview of the extent of official but of course disavowed surveillance of Dr King…missed taking note of who performed the cover of Dylan’s Masters of War at the end…!