5. FBI Investigated King for Communist Ties
Taking into account King’s admitted preference for socialism to capitalism, it’s really no surprise that the red-paranoid FBI of the 50’s and 60’s investigated him for possible communist ties. But the reality of it is still rather shocking. Under infamous chief J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI bugged King’s hotel rooms, expecting to record evidence of King’s communism. It was 1963, and King had already earned a reputation as a heroic leader in the struggle for civil rights, only one year before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Talk about a worthwhile use of government resources, right?
The official story is King was suspect because of his association with a former Communist Party insider named Stanley Levison, but it was no secret that Hoover took issue with King since the minister criticized bureau practices in the South, accusing Hoover of failing to enforce civil rights law and of mollycoddling racist Southern policemen.
The FBI got its dirt on King, but not the kind it expected. Instead, the FBI recorded ample evidence of King’s extramarital activities. In one memo, Hoover called King, “a tom cat with obsessive degenerate sexual urges.” Hoover even went so far as to smear King to the press in late 1964. From there, things just took a creepy turn for the worse. King received an anonymous letter, allegedly mailed by one of Hoover’s deputies, admonishing King for the “hideous abnormalities” found in someone once viewed as a “man of character.”
The letter used the word “evil” to describe King six times, calling him “dirty,” “filthy,” “a beast” and “a fraud.” Complete with plenty of racially-charged language, it concluded by offering a deadline of 34 days, “before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.” Finally, the anonymous writer advised King, “There is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is.”
It’s commonly thought the letter suggests King commit suicide. A full, uncensored version of the letter can even be found in a reprocessed set of Hoover’s official and confidential files at the National Archives. Current F.B.I. director James Comey actually keeps a copy of the King wiretap request on his desk as a reminder of the bureau’s capacity to do wrong.
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