FBI letter to MLK resurfaces
The gist
Yale historian Beverly Gage unearthed and published the unredacted FBI letter sent to Martin Luther King Jr.
The unsigned letter, opened by King's wife, shows how far Hoover's FBI went to discredit him.
How it unfolded
- Aug 1963King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, DC, and the FBI takes notice.
- Aug 1963Two days after the speech, FBI Domestic Intelligence Chief William Sullivan writes a memo saying King must be marked "as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation."
- 1963A massive surveillance operation on King is quickly approved, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover becomes increasingly fixated on proving King had communist ties and discrediting him.