“As previously stated, we are in complete agreement with the director that communist influence is being exerted on Martin Luther King, Jr and that King is the strongest of the Negro leaders. As we have stated before in a memorandum, we regard Martin Luther King to be the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country.”
Dep FBI Director William Sullivan, 1963
the “previous memorandum,” written two days after the March on Washington speech (the one we hear a soundbite from, never mind the rest) used much the same language- ““We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security”
so in 1964, the Deputy Director of the FBI (and head of COINTELPRO) sent King this unsigned letter, presumably with J Edgar Hoover’s approval, as part of a multi pronged effort to disrupt King’s work.
Correct.
@Rex Kramer the MLK they present to us every February is a comforting fiction created to protect the things the real King wanted to destroy. I realize you don’t fully disagree, but the American political establishment and white public at large was absolutely terrified of MLK in the same way and for even some of the same reasons that the Temple crowd and Greco-Jewish clients of Rome who ruled Judea were terrified of Jesus.