John Whitehead's Commentary
Spying on Martin Luther King
At the 1996 Southern Christian Leadership Conference celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., guest speaker Mumia Abu-Jamal exclaimed, "Any celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s magnificence would not be complete without reference to the intrusive and relentless campaign waged against him by the U.S. government, through its agencies like the FBI, to dilute the influence, and destroy his effectiveness."
In light of the recent revelation that President Bush secretly ordered the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, Abu-Jamal's account of the U.S. government's treatment of Dr. King is also relevant today. There are countless descriptions of the torment that King faced by the American government, especially the FBI. In the 1960s, during the height of the civil rights movement, the FBI created what was termed a "Racial Matter" category, whereby agents wiretapped King's office, home and hotel rooms and listened to his conversations with close associates. According to one account, "King's file in the bureau's headquarters contained thousands upon thousands of pages, augmented by dispatches from field agents stationed virtually everywhere he traveled." In fact, one "bug" hidden at the Willard Hotel during King's stay yielded 19 reels of tape that allegedly picked up information about his extramarital affairs.
Beyond the appalling spying tactics implored by the FBI, the government used the information acquired to try to emotionally destroy King. Agents wrote letters, posing as African American citizens, criticizing King for his alleged adultery and hypocritical Christianity. Through many of these letters, they even tried to convince King to commit suicide. According to David Garrow in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book on Martin Luther King, Bearing the Cross, one of these letters to King stated, "KING...You are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes. You have turned out to be not a leader but a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile...You are finished." Using the information acquired by their spying, the letter continued, "King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what that is. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation." And although King was strong enough to survive this and other similar threats--at least strong enough to avoid taking his own life, the incidents inflicted lasting emotional scars. Indeed, those close to King stated that he dealt with severe depression.
King became a government target because he represented a threat to the establishment. J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the FBI, referred to King as "an instrument in the hands of subversive forces seeking to undermine our nation." And the notion that King was "dangerous" was shared by many powerful white-elites of the time; so much so that they often labeled King and his associates as Communists.
Hoover even had a personal vendetta against King. Of King's alleged unfaithfulness to his wife, Hoover said, "This is positively nauseating coming from a degenerate like King." However, to say that Hoover's statement about King is hypocritical is an understatement. After all, Hoover's biographers have divulged that the late paranoid FBI director secretly wore wigs and dresses and even covertly bore the name "Mary."
In 1978, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in response to domestic spying on activists and war protesters of the 1960s and 1970s. FISA was also in large part a response to the uncovering of the domestic spying and tactics implored by the FBI against King. FISA, in fact, is the very law that President Bush circumvented by his recent spying orders.
Today, we have come full circle. Once again, the American government is spying on peaceful activist groups and ordinary Americans who have done nothing wrong, except perhaps align themselves with an unpopular cause.
If we are to celebrate anything about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life, it is the fact that our Constitution and now our laws protect us against the threats and degrading treatment King had to endure at the hands of the U.S. government. Let us be vigilant in holding our government accountable in order to make certain that it never happens again.
In light of the recent revelation that President Bush secretly ordered the National Security Agency to spy on Americans, Abu-Jamal's account of the U.S. government's treatment of Dr. King is also relevant today. There are countless descriptions of the torment that King faced by the American government, especially the FBI. In the 1960s, during the height of the civil rights movement, the FBI created what was termed a "Racial Matter" category, whereby agents wiretapped King's office, home and hotel rooms and listened to his conversations with close associates. According to one account, "King's file in the bureau's headquarters contained thousands upon thousands of pages, augmented by dispatches from field agents stationed virtually everywhere he traveled." In fact, one "bug" hidden at the Willard Hotel during King's stay yielded 19 reels of tape that allegedly picked up information about his extramarital affairs.
Beyond the appalling spying tactics implored by the FBI, the government used the information acquired to try to emotionally destroy King. Agents wrote letters, posing as African American citizens, criticizing King for his alleged adultery and hypocritical Christianity. Through many of these letters, they even tried to convince King to commit suicide. According to David Garrow in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book on Martin Luther King, Bearing the Cross, one of these letters to King stated, "KING...You are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes. You have turned out to be not a leader but a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile...You are finished." Using the information acquired by their spying, the letter continued, "King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what that is. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation." And although King was strong enough to survive this and other similar threats--at least strong enough to avoid taking his own life, the incidents inflicted lasting emotional scars. Indeed, those close to King stated that he dealt with severe depression.
King became a government target because he represented a threat to the establishment. J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the FBI, referred to King as "an instrument in the hands of subversive forces seeking to undermine our nation." And the notion that King was "dangerous" was shared by many powerful white-elites of the time; so much so that they often labeled King and his associates as Communists.
Hoover even had a personal vendetta against King. Of King's alleged unfaithfulness to his wife, Hoover said, "This is positively nauseating coming from a degenerate like King." However, to say that Hoover's statement about King is hypocritical is an understatement. After all, Hoover's biographers have divulged that the late paranoid FBI director secretly wore wigs and dresses and even covertly bore the name "Mary."
In 1978, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in response to domestic spying on activists and war protesters of the 1960s and 1970s. FISA was also in large part a response to the uncovering of the domestic spying and tactics implored by the FBI against King. FISA, in fact, is the very law that President Bush circumvented by his recent spying orders.
Today, we have come full circle. Once again, the American government is spying on peaceful activist groups and ordinary Americans who have done nothing wrong, except perhaps align themselves with an unpopular cause.
If we are to celebrate anything about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life, it is the fact that our Constitution and now our laws protect us against the threats and degrading treatment King had to endure at the hands of the U.S. government. Let us be vigilant in holding our government accountable in order to make certain that it never happens again.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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