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 ...
Agreed on Booker T. 100%. And as for the sealed files, I cannot imagine there will be anything interesting there. Same with the JFK files.
They won’t be releasing a paper that says:
“Our covert CIA mission in Dealey Plaza in Dallas was a success. Kennedy is dead and now our man Johnson is in charge. TOP SECRET, DO NOT RELEASE FOR 50 Years.”
I think on all these sealed files, the most we will ever get is a dump truck full of bureaucratic working product that reinforces what we’ve always been told all along.
(1) I don't know how old you are, but back in that day (cold war era) and earlier, communist sympathizers were investigated, as our nation rightfully feared an internal communist takeover.
(2) Runaway government is covered in probably half of the other threads here at FR. This is a thread about MLK, and unfortunately there are Freepers here who have naively bought into the myth.
(3) All President Heston did was agree with the original merits of marching for equality. I don't think anyone will argue against that, but I doubt Heston truly approved of the messanger in his later years.
When I was young the media which happened to be more objective back then would periodically play the clip of Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table, and yelling he was going to bury the United States.
People who discount Communism should watch that, and realize that though Imperialist Communism is at a lull, it could come back with a vengeance (i.e. Chicoms)
It comes down to intelligence. If you want to fight the leftists in the Civil Rights movement, then you must first stop the situation that has created the movement. In other words, quit beating your wife so the neighbor cant seduce her.
Your zeal against leftism is meaningless without racial equality. Because the left can easily use that injustice as a petri dish in which to grow, and from which to blossom forth.
And I call BS on King pushing affirmative action, and racial reparations. Ive never heard a single word that he thought blacks should get quotas, special advantages. And he never called for financial reparations.
And yeah, Heston is a pretty good arbiter. I make up my own mind too. And I really like it when I discover people I respect are there beside me after I decide what I think.
And I don’t know how old you are either. But the best friend communists in America ever had were racists. Especially those in states that had segregation.
Show me a serious communist plot take seize power in America in the 50s or 60s, and ill show you the bomber gap and the missile gap. Both were figments of the imagination. So no, we did not rightfully fear a communist takeover back then, we idiotically did.
But the communists were very eager to find a chink in Americas moral armor. Like water, they find the slightest crack. They were able to damage us a lot with institutionalized racism by pointing out how it was the exact opposite of our lofty stated ideals.
A racist is a communist’s greatest friend.
Agreed. The Communists have achieved pretty much all of their original goals by taking over the schools.
Yet some conservatives slobber over a well-known Communist.
Unreal.
It is precisely because Bill Cosby is a liberal, that he is a Democrat, and that he believes in that Blacks continue to be racially abused by whites that he has been targeted. He is one of their own, he is from the plantation and he is deeply respected by liberals and Blacks. So when he tells them to get off the plantaition, drop the government handouts, raise their children, go to school and get a job, it terrifies the Left. That's why they are attacking him and trying to destroy his credibility. That you don't understand those simple dynamics doesn't sum him up - it sums you up.
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.
History repeatedly shows your father was very wrong. Those times were very complex, but King stood in the middle of a lot of rage and violence and repeatedly called for peaceful solutions and for Blacks to put their lives on the line in the name of their Christian faith by acting in a peaceful manner. You slander the spiritual courage of not only MLK, but the hundreds of thousands of people who braved the hatred, subversion and violence of millions of violent racists.
You might want to waste your time respecting those types, but I will not.
I assure you, I would never accuse you of respecting anyone.
Back of the bus! What are you doing up front? Oh,,, wait,,,I forgot about that 19th amendment. Its ok, you can sit up front. But, you do know that the women’s suffrage movement was full of socialists don’t you?
Guess we should have opposed that leftist women’s voting movement!
The riots came after King left town. I remember.
1) No - association with some communists does not make one an "avowed communist sympathizer," especially when one is killed for standing up for American princiles.
2) So what? He wasn't perfect? Are you a Christian? According to Christianity, is anyone perfect? Are you perfect? If you're not perfect, why are you expressing any opinion about anything? Doesn't your imperfection remove anything else you do? Isn't that your point about King? And who are you going to believe about his adultery - the reports from the adulterer Robert Kennedy and the closet homosexual J. Edgar Hoover? You gonna release a report on which adultery is trustable, and which is not?
3) No - he did not give "aid and comfort to the enemy," he protested the legitimacy of the war generally, as was his American right to do, and called attention the the enormously greater percentage of Blacks who were getting drafted over Whites. Is that something you personally wouldn't want anyone knowing about?
If that is your idea of a respectable person, why are you even here at FR?
To speak the truth against lies.
And the comment about slander and hyperbole...., pretty much what I have stated has been proven as fact.
LOL, "pretty much" meaning nothing you've said hasn't been spun in a dryer at top speed.
Why don't you do a little research, rather than worshiping the myth.
Why do you hate America, when it's freedoms have given you and your family so much? Why do you seek to tear it down, to destroy its principles and slander its heros by reversing good for evil, and confusing people about the importance of things? What is your goal, and why do you think you will achieve it? Do you really think your masters will give a damn about you once you've served your purpose? Really? Why do you worship that myth?
Well then, I guess telling everyone to protest non-violently caused riots, right? Because that's your point, right? That teaching non-violence leads to riots - right?
I mean, otherwise you'd have to come up with another explanation, like maybe King went to hot spots that were threatening violence anyway. Maybe he went there to try to calm things down - and maybe he did. Maybe the riots weren't anywhere near what they would have been because he went there and preached non-violent resistence. And maybe those riots were cause by Whites trying to incite Blacks by beating them or shooting them. You know, like THOUSANDS of Blacks have testified to having happened back then?
What exactly are you trying to support here? Really - what? And WHY?
I have no use for leftists in the "Civil Rights movement" nor or anywhere else.
Either you are anti-leftist, or you aren't. You don't get to pick and choose certain pet radicals.
"Your zeal against leftism is meaningless without racial equality."
Don't hand me that politically correct garbage.
" Because the left can easily use that injustice as a petri dish in which to grow, and from which to blossom forth."
What "injustices" do you mean? Examples, please.
"And I call BS on King pushing affirmative action, and racial reparations. Ive never heard a single word that he thought blacks should get quotas, special advantages. And he never called for financial reparations."
Oh, I'm sure you want to call BS on it, because you're all swept up in the King cult and you want to stay there.
Regardless, in his book A Testament of Hope, King wrote: "This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality -- that is the dream.
In King's 1965 Playboy interview, he said that granting equality only to blacks wasn't enough to close the racial gap. He called for a $50 billion government compensatory program.
And in his 1961 speech to the AFL-CIO, King voiced his support for "economic justice."
"And yeah, Heston is a pretty good arbiter. I make up my own mind too. And I really like it when I discover people I respect are there beside me after I decide what I think."
If you were thinking, you wouldn't be a fan of a leftist radical like King.
What are you supposed to do with enemies of the country ? This is the kind of mentality that allows Wahhabi Sunnis to plan big killing sprees right in our country because we don’t want to offend the bastards.
Before saying that again with a straight face, you might want to re-review this earlier thread from 2012
2) So what? He wasn't perfect? Are you a Christian? According to Christianity, is anyone perfect? Are you perfect? If you're not perfect, why are you expressing any opinion about anything? Doesn't your imperfection remove anything else you do?
I am not perfect, no one is, but I can honestly with 100% that I have never committed adultery in 33 years of marriage, much less be serial adulterer. By the way this guy is supposed to be a moral icon, which I say much sarcasm.
3) No - he did not give "aid and comfort to the enemy," he protested the legitimacy of the war generally, as was his American right to do, and called attention the the enormously greater percentage of Blacks who were getting drafted over Whites. Is that something you personally wouldn't want anyone knowing about?
Are you serious? This wasn't a joe-blow hippy carrying a sign out in the street. He as a acknowldeged leader, by his actions giving aid and comfort to the enemy. We can argue semantics forever, but the cold hard facts is that he was undermining our war effort.
To speak the truth against lies.
My view is you are doing your best to perpetuate the myth who in essence was an enemy of America. I can't help that you hold left wing icons as heros.
. Why do you hate America, when it's freedoms have given you and your family so much? Why do you seek to tear it down, to destroy its principles and slander its heros by reversing good for evil, and confusing people about the importance of things? What is your goal, and why do you think you will achieve it? Do you really think your masters will give a damn about you once you've served your purpose? Really? Why do you worship that myth?
HA HA HA.... this the kind of shit that runs rampant at du. Is that your normal home? MLK and his myth may be a hero to some, but Freepers can see through the bullshit a mile a way. Back to du, ya troll.
Talisker, wake the hell up. Cosby made a couple of comments about black names and pulling up pants, and not very recently. Yet you believe the left has suddenly, now, decided to go on some campaign against one of their own for those remarks.
"History repeatedly shows your father was very wrong."
Well, it's funny, but my good friend in WA state told me her dad used to say the same thing. Yesterday a Freeper did, as well.
They're just all wrong because St. Martin wouldn't have behaved in such a manner./S
" Those times were very complex, but King stood in the middle of a lot of rage and violence and repeatedly called for peaceful solutions and for Blacks to put their lives on the line in the name of their Christian faith by acting in a peaceful manner."
Exactly. And then he split. In a hurry.
" You slander the spiritual courage of not only MLK, but the hundreds of thousands of people who braved the hatred, subversion and violence of millions of violent racists."
You still don't seem to get it.
"Spiritual courage" is not something that can be associated with a leftwing, America-hating, Jesus-denying radical, sexual deviant, and woman beater.
"Guess we should have opposed that leftist women’s voting movement!"
In view of the fact that most women vote for liberals, I honestly sometimes wonder.
Because the man was a fraud and a fake--a Unitarian-Universalist in Baptist robes, an atheist moralist who tore the bible to shreds and reduced religion to a purely rational morality (like Voltaire, Paine, and Jefferson, whom I suppose are also heroes of yours).
The movement King started has gone on to champion abortion, homosexuality, and now euthanasia. It is because of King that there isn't one Fundamentalist Black left in the country (who isn't politically schizophrenic at least).
My ancestors were Southerners who fought for the Union and against slavery and who were persecuted by the original Ku-Klux Klan, so don't patronize me.
I remember that he came and spoke, and then the riots started, after he left. That is how I remember his appearances.
There is still an area in the city where I grew up that never rebuilt after the riot there subsided. This was not a big city, either, so I don’t know why nothing was rebuilt.
I enjoyed the “Mountaintop” speech.
Think what you want. These are my memories of that period. I also know that I wanted to go see what the fuss was really all about, but I was roundly told no by my parents. I was young. This made a big impression on me.
I understand that MLK was both a capitalist and a Republican.
Also, my recollection of the time is that two speech writers for King, whom traveled with him, were definite Communists. We may little attention to it today but, in that day and time, being Communist was a big deal.
And again leaning on recollection, King knew they CPUSA types, but kept them because they were good at what they did.
Paid agents of what or whom, may I ask? And while we're at it, drinking too much is a minor human imperfection. Being a Communist fellow traveler (or worse) at the height of the Cold War is treason, not a minor character flaw.
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