Posted on 10/04/2022 3:34:56 PM PDT by conservative98
Aretha Franklin was tracked by the FBI for 40 years as the agency repeatedly sought but ultimately failed to tie the Queen of Soul to “extremists” and “radicals,” newly declassified documents reveal.
The 270-page FBI file — obtained by Rolling Stone magazine — details how the feds spied on the “Respect” songstress through “false phone calls, surveillance, infiltration and highly-placed sources” from 1967 to 2007.
The FBI’s suspicion of the late star was laid bare in the cache of documents, which included a slew of phrases, such as “black extremists,” “procommunist,” “hate America,” “radical,” “racial violence” and “militant blackpower.”
“I’m not really sure if my mother was aware that she was being targeted by the FBI and followed. I do know that she had absolutely nothing to hide though,” Franklin’s son, Kecalf Franklin, told the outlet.
The documents, some of which are heavily redacted, were first requested by the outlet via the Freedom of Information Act in August 2018 — just days after Franklin died from a pancreatic tumor, aged 76.
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Agents also tried to link the “Chain of Fools” singer to the Black Liberation Army. In one of the documents, the feds flagged her 1971 contract with Atlantic Records “just in case” there was any link to the Black Panther Party.
Despite the FBI’s extensive surveillance, the agency never discovered anything that linked Franklin to radical or extremist behavior, according to the file.
“It does make me feel a certain way knowing the FBI had her targeted and wanted to know her every move” her son said.
“But at the same time knowing my mother and the way she ran her business I know she had nothing to hide so they wouldn’t have found anything and were wasting their time. As you see…they found nothing at all.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Man what a scene in a movie packed with great scenes.
“Hey Nineteen, that’s ‘Reetha Franklin!”
Think of it as democracy in action.
:-(
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