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The FBI and Martin Luther King
Atlantic, The ^ | Jul 1 2002, 12:00 PM ET | David J. Garrow

Posted on 01/19/2015 1:23:46 PM PST by WhiskeyX

Martin Luther King was never himself a Communist—far from it. But the FBI's wiretapping of King was precipitated by his association with Stanley Levison, a man with reported ties to the Communist Party. Newly available documents reveal what the FBI actually knew—the vast extent of Levinson's Party activities

On October 10, 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy committed what is widely viewed as one of the most ignominious acts in modern American history: he authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin wiretapping the telephones of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy believed that one of King's closest advisers was a top-level member of the American Communist Party, and that King had repeatedly misled Administration officials about his ongoing close ties with the man. Kennedy acted reluctantly, and his order remained secret until May of 1968, just a few weeks after King's assassination and a few days before Kennedy's own. But the FBI onslaught against King that followed Kennedy's authorization remains notorious, and the stains on the reputations of everyone involved are indelible.

Yet at the time, neither Robert Kennedy nor anyone else outside the FBI knew more than a tiny part of the story that had led to that decision, or even the identities of the two FBI informants who had set the investigation in motion. Only in 1981 were their names—Jack and Morris Childs—publicly revealed, but even then the relevant documents were so heavily redacted that only the most bare-bones sketch of what had taken place was possible.

But now an ongoing FBI "reprocessing" of those documents, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, is resulting in the release of hundreds of largely unredacted pages that finally allow the story to be told.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1963; communists; fbi; garrow; king; levinson; levison; madtinlutherking; stanleylevinson; wiretap; wiretapping
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Some critics have described David J. Garrow as an apologist for Martin Luther King, Jr. Read his article and compare to the other sources of information to see what you think about the affair and Garrow's treatment of the allegations about Communist activities.
1 posted on 01/19/2015 1:23:46 PM PST by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

There should be a full expose on King, especially the immorality and hypocrisy. I’m sick of lionizing this guy, the pandering, yet all the while the same people don’t have a problem calling out The Founding Fathers, Columbus, et al. Let’s hear ALL of what King was about, including the womanizing, orgies, plagiarism, FBI tapes instead of this annual “holiday” and creaming pants of the racial panderers


2 posted on 01/19/2015 1:38:36 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat (Stop calling the plagiarist "Dr." KIng . . .)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

The King hate this year is amazing. Seems like there’s a “let’s tear down the respected black man” shill theme going on. First Cosby, now King. And why? Because implication. Because slander. Because hyperbole. Because human imperfection trying to be whipped into a bonfire by paid agents.

Fifty years of enormous, consistently positive benefit to race relations, and then focusing on teaching Blacks to get off of government aid, go to school, get jobs and take care of their families?

Pshaw.

Teaching millions non-violent protest to curb an open race war and being killed for your efforts?

Pshaw.


3 posted on 01/19/2015 1:45:54 PM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: WhiskeyX

I always thought he was and I just looked it up. There is lots of info out there which says he was. One site said he had been one since the very beginning. He never rang true.


4 posted on 01/19/2015 1:51:28 PM PST by MamaB
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To: WhiskeyX

The reality is that there were communists in the civil rights movement. But I see them as an opportunistic infection. The segregation era gave communists a chance to appear and act like they championed the cause of individual freedom.

Those damn idiots blocking the school doors in Little Rock, and being violent in Selma, actually helped communists more than they will ever know. This is because they gave the communists a chance to act moral when nothing was further from the truth.

I see it as a guy sees a neighbor beating his wife, and he catches her somewhere and tells her what a shame it is, and how good HE would treat her, and how he’s always there to listen to her. We all know that he has other motives. But if the man isn’t beating his wife, this guy doesn’t get an easy angle to weasel his way in.
So sorry, the racist a-holes of the day might as well have been getting paid by Moscow.


5 posted on 01/19/2015 1:59:49 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: WhiskeyX

And who was Martin King? In 1955 he was a big-dream utopian who euphemistically identified himself as an “anti-capitalist.” He was, in truth, a starry-eyed Marxist who only four years earlier had written this personal manifesto:
“…I am conviced [sic] that capitalism has seen its best days in American [sic], and not only in America, but in the entire world. It is a well known fact that no social institute [sic] can survive when it has outlived its usefullness [sic]. This, capitalism has done. It has failed to meet the needs of the masses.

“We need only to look at the underlying developements [sic] of our society. There is a definite revolt by, what Marx calls, ‘the preletarian’, [sic] against the bourgeoise [sic]…. What will eventually happen is this, labor will become so power [sic] (this was certainly evidenced in the recent election) that she will be able to place a president in the White House. This will inevitably bring about a nationalization of industry. That will be the end of capitalism. . . there is a definite move away from capitalism, whether we conceive of it as conscious or unconscious Capitalism finds herself like a losing football team in the last quarter trying types of tactics to survive.”

Martin King wrote this drivel at a time when communist totalitarians were condemning billions of people to lives of poverty, mediocrity and fear. The FBI had good reason to be concerned that someone who was so foolish as to embrace the false promise of Marxism might become the charismatic leader of millions of poorly educated and discontented black folks. Martin King was forever prattling about an imagined link between the needs of American blacks and the anti-colonial struggles of people in the Third World. King surrounded himself with dedicated Communists. King’s advisor Hunter Pitts (Jack) O’Dell was a veteran Communist Party organizer in New Orleans. Martin King’s advisor Stanley Levison was a financier for the Communist Party. King’s most trusted advisor and strategist Bayard Rustin began his activism with the Young Communist League.

All of these people understood the power of propaganda, invented history, staged events, deception and impersonation. Like their Soviet role models, these closeted communists sought to create power bases around cults of personality.

(exerpted from “Rosa Parks re-examined” by Thomas Clough of WeirdRepublic)


6 posted on 01/19/2015 2:01:00 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: A_Former_Democrat

“Let’s hear ALL of what King was about, including the womanizing, orgies, plagiarism, FBI tapes”

I’m sure the illegal Stasi blackmail tapes were pretty bad. I only care to hear them if ALL of J Edgars blackmail tapes are released. Then we can judge all of our leaders the same way. And id also like to hear all the tapes from J Edgars and Tolson’s vacations. (I’m not exactly worried about their heirs suing me,,,if you know what I mean)


7 posted on 01/19/2015 2:06:54 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: WhiskeyX
This reads like a script from the old time radio serial "I Was A Communist For The FBI".
8 posted on 01/19/2015 2:12:18 PM PST by The KG9 Kid
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To: A_Former_Democrat

I just got done posting to someone who says he doesn’t care about the fact that King was a Communist. He thinks conservatives should “meditate” on “Dr. King”.


9 posted on 01/19/2015 2:20:18 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: SpaceBar

The barest essence of Capitalism is free commerce, conducted under rule of law, and that no individual has more rights under the law than any other.

A black man in that era, was not equal under the law here. At the same time, communist agents could point him to Moscow and tell him how free blacks were there. That they were integrated into universities. That they were equal under soviet law.

He would neglect to point out that the USSR essentially HAD no black population beyond a few students from Africa. He wouldn’t point out that equality under Soviet law was a worse life than 2nd class status here in America. He wouldn’t point out that Russian people never consider blacks their intellectual equals.

But in that era, asking a black man to celebrate capitalism when the biggest capitalist nation refused him equal legal status, was probably a bit much to ask. I say we know he was a flawed man, like most high end performers, that he was fighting for equality, and leave it at that. He was seduced twice. By women, and by socialists, but his goal was the end of 2nd class status. Both seductions hurt that goal.
And btw, Charleton Heston agrees with me that King was on the right side of the argument.


10 posted on 01/19/2015 2:21:48 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: Talisker

Bill Cosby is an Obama bot and a hater of whites. When Republicans didn’t stand for an Obama SOTU speech, he compared them to segregationists.

King was just another typical leftist radical. My father always told me that he would preach “non-violence”, and then get out of town before the riots started.

You might want to waste your time respecting those types, but I will not.


11 posted on 01/19/2015 2:23:58 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: Talisker
King was (1) An avowed communist sympathizer (2) A serial adulterer (3)An anti-war activist during a time when thousand of young men we dying in Vietnam, giving comfort and aid to an enemy.

If that is your idea of a respectable person, why are you even here at FR?

And the comment about slander and hyperbole...., pretty much what I have stated has been proven as fact. Why don't you do a little research, rather than worshiping the myth.

12 posted on 01/19/2015 2:30:36 PM PST by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

Michael . alias “Martin Luther” “Jr. ( what joke ) was a serial adulterer according to Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and author. I feel sorry for Mrs Michael King. But of greater significances was his theft of others works to fraudulently obtain a “phd” at Boston University. The Plagiarism was discovered and Michael was fully exposed but they were fearful and treated him different from others who plagiarize a doctoral dissertation.
His communist ties were to the Chinese MAOIST!! Many direct but mostly through his communist lawyer. Why would Reagan do this by signing a holiday bill on this jack ass communist, thief and hypocrite adulterer, I will never understand. What a phoney.


13 posted on 01/19/2015 2:32:37 PM PST by iowacornman (Romney is the father of government health care.)
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To: A_Former_Democrat
There should be a full expose on King, especially the immorality and hypocrisy.

When his FBI files are unsealed in 2027, watch the fireworks fly. Hope I am around to see it.

14 posted on 01/19/2015 2:34:42 PM PST by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: WhiskeyX
As we know him: Marxist Lucifer King
15 posted on 01/19/2015 2:38:20 PM PST by nonsporting
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To: WhiskeyX

Anyone who thinks LBJ wasn’t plugged in to the spying on King hasn’t read the transcripts of LBJ’s tapes. Hoover was LBJ personal spy, and was used to keep with EVERYTHING and EVERYONE.


16 posted on 01/19/2015 2:38:27 PM PST by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: iowacornman

And we know this about King from,,,,,FBI office break-ins, use of informers, mail opening, wiretapping, and bugging of King’s office, home, and hotel rooms.

Substitute “TEA” for King, and that one reason I’ll side with King over the people who hounded him. King had deep problems, but runaway government is who we should line up against. And like I mentioned. Charleton Heston agrees with me about King.


17 posted on 01/19/2015 2:38:44 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: catfish1957

“Hope I am around to see it.”

Fat chance. They’ll end up with the same type of fate as Obama’s State Department passport files and the National Archives records Sandy Berger stuffed down his pants.


18 posted on 01/19/2015 2:41:14 PM PST by WhiskeyX
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To: iowacornman
Why would Reagan do this by signing a holiday bill on this jack ass communist, thief and hypocrite adulterer, I will never understand. What a phoney.

Booker T. Washington would have been a much better choice. Now that was a fascinating great man, who accomplished an incredible amount in his lifetime.

19 posted on 01/19/2015 2:41:30 PM PST by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: DesertRhino
"King had deep problems, but runaway government is who we should line up against."

We should also be lined up against the left, should we not? Besides, runaway government included income redistribution, affirmative action, and racial reparations---all pushed by MLK.

" And like I mentioned. Charleton Heston agrees with me about King."

With all due respect to you, I don't care who agrees with you about King. I like Charlton Heston just fine, but he's not my moral arbiter. I make up my own mind, and I know for a fact that King was a leftist.

20 posted on 01/19/2015 2:44:54 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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