Now is as good a day as any to post this. I got this from an email I received a few days ago from an organization I'm signed up with. The speech is from 2006, so it references the Bush Administration but it's still relevant today:
Government surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Matthew B. Johnson
[This presentation was an invited address, delivered on Sunday January 15, 2006 at the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County in Maplewood, New Jersey. Matthew Johnson is Co-Chair of the S. Orange- Maplewood Martin Luther King Holiday Committee, a member of the People’s Organization for Progress and an Associate Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.]
The title of my presentation today is FBI spying and harassment of Martin Luther King (MLK). I thought this would be a fitting topic, as we recall and commemorate, Dr. King this weekend. And also, as we all know, there is reason to examine this fact of American history because we are on the verge of a very critical debate about unauthorized government spying on United States citizens by the Bush administration. And maybe not so important, but I think clearly relevant, as the Township of Maplewood considers employing surveillance cameras around town.
I was aware that the FBI had carried out surveillance of MLK’s activities during the Civil Rights movement. I believe this was common knowledge, among those of my generation, and certainly among those who followed political affairs. And while it is not easy for me to admit it, I have to confess, I maintained a rather casual attitude about the surveillance of Dr. King related to several things. On a superficial level, the government surveillance of MLK could be dismissed as one of the treacherous vagaries of J. Edgar Hoover, a disturbed man who amassed too much power in a government bureaucracy. Perhaps I naively believed that J. Edgar Hoover’s unchecked control of the FBI was a historical aberration. Interestingly it is relevant to recognize, as presented by MacArthur Award winning documentary film maker Stanley Nelson, that J. Edgar Hoover’s rise to prominence in the United States ‘intelligence’ community was based on his surveillance and disruption of the activities of Black Nationalist leader, Marcus Garvey. So MLK was by no means alone among Hoover’s targets. In fact, it could be argued that two of the most distinguished men of 20th century America (in addition to many everyday people) endured the surveillance and harassment of Hoover’s FBI. These two men are of course MLK but also – Albert Einstein, the renowned physicist, social justice activist, and critic of American racism. For those interested in this piece of history, I refer you to The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret War Against the Famous Scientist by Fred Jerome.
However another, probably more fundamental reason, why I had a rather casual attitude about the FBI surveillance of Dr. King was due to my awareness of the more brutal aspects of the US Government surveillance and disruption of the activities of African-American (and other) freedom fighters, known as the FBI “Cointelpro” initiative.
All of us have various defining moments on our lives. In 1969, I was 16 years old. I had been nurtured in a home, both my parents’ home and grandmother’s home, where civil rights issues had been the most compelling source of discussion throughout my childhood. I had lived through the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and MLK, as rather distant news items. Probably as I moved into a more mature stage of adolescence, I was profoundly distressed by the news of the police raid and murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, I believe on December 4th 1969 in Chicago.
I commiserated in grief for several days, I stayed home from school, I discussed it with one or two of my friends, and I was convinced it was an action by the Chicago police in concert with government agents, as alleged by the Black Panther Party. For those of you who do not know, in the 1980’s Fred Hampton’s widow, and the other survivors of the government’s cowardly raid and murder of Fred Hampton and his group, were awarded a multimillion dollar, civil settlement through the federal courts for the government role in the extra-legal execution of the African-American freedom fighters. That means, it was established they were murdered. I say it was cowardly because while Hampton and his colleagues did have arms, in the home at the time of the raid, a paid government infiltrator, who had prepared their dinner the night before, had drugged Hampton, Clark and the others to facilitate the pre-meditated government lethal assault. So for this reason also, I maintained a rather casual attitude about the FBI surveillance of Dr. King.
More recently the issue of government surveillance of MLK was resurrected in my mind, as I prepared for the 2004 MLK Holiday Celebration here in town. I was concerned about the conception of MLK as a celebrated figure, and concerned that the concept of Dr. King, as a controversial figure, was being lost. Today everyone embraces Dr. King, even the current US President, arguably the most politically reactionary and anti-Civil Rights President of the post WWII era, quotes and claims to embrace Dr. King. Yet the fact, that in his day, King was the target of surveillance, slander, disruption and terroristic threats, seems to have been lost.
Today everyone can look back and recognize that King fought to empower African-Americans, and all poor people, and to salvage American democracy. But in his day this appreciation of Dr. King and his work was not so widespread. It is easy to recognize human rights violations, such as Jim Crow segregation, in the past, but during his time King was characterized as a subversive, an Agitator, a simple trouble-maker. And this realization should challenge us to question whether we can recognize the human rights violations in our time, in our midst.
So as I prepared for the 2004 MLK Holiday Celebration we included in our program information about the US government “Cointelpro” campaign against Dr. King which I will discuss further below.
How is it that a man quoted, revered, and celebrated today, was subjected to surveillance by his own government, in his time? And it was not just surveillance, it was surveillance and harassment, it was bribery and disruption. And let’s be clear about it, I’m not referring to surveillance by the drowsy, southern, agricultural states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, or Georgia. We’re not talking about surveillance authorized by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, or John Ashcroft, or even Edwin Meese. We’re talking about government surveillance authorized by the Democratic Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the quintessential Kennedy liberal democratic.
So what do we know about the facts of the FBI surveillance of Dr. King? Much of what follows is from the 1976 US Senate Select Committee Report on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, popularly known as the ‘Church Committee Report’, which is accessible via internet. In 1962 the FBI opened its investigation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its, President MLK. The investigation was conducted under a FBI manual provision captioned “COMINFIL” an acronym for communist infiltration – this provision, authorized investigation of legitimate noncommunist organizations, which the FBI believed to be influenced by communist party members. However, the FBI had kept close watch of Dr. King, long before opening its formal investigation. As early as 1957, Hoover had reacted to the formation of the SCLC by reminding agents in the field “…you should remain alert for public source information concerning it (SCLC) in connection with the racial situation.” In May of 1962, Hoover had included King on “Section A of the Reserve Index” as a person to be rounded up and detained in the event of a “national emergency”. Records reveal that Dr. King had been the subject of FBI surveillance in a program titled “Racial Matters” dating back to the late 1950’s. The first written allegations of communist infiltration of the SCLC appeared in a report from the FBI to Attorney General Robert Kennedy dated 1/8/62. Two SCLC staffers, who were advisers to Dr. King, were allegedly communists.
Continued...
Government surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Matthew B. Johnson
[This presentation was an invited address, delivered on Sunday January 15, 2006 at the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County in Maplewood, New Jersey. Matthew Johnson is Co-Chair of the S. Orange- Maplewood Martin Luther King Holiday Committee, a member of the People’s Organization for Progress and an Associate Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.]
The title of my presentation today is FBI spying and harassment of Martin Luther King (MLK). I thought this would be a fitting topic, as we recall and commemorate, Dr. King this weekend. And also, as we all know, there is reason to examine this fact of American history because we are on the verge of a very critical debate about unauthorized government spying on United States citizens by the Bush administration. And maybe not so important, but I think clearly relevant, as the Township of Maplewood considers employing surveillance cameras around town.
I was aware that the FBI had carried out surveillance of MLK’s activities during the Civil Rights movement. I believe this was common knowledge, among those of my generation, and certainly among those who followed political affairs. And while it is not easy for me to admit it, I have to confess, I maintained a rather casual attitude about the surveillance of Dr. King related to several things. On a superficial level, the government surveillance of MLK could be dismissed as one of the treacherous vagaries of J. Edgar Hoover, a disturbed man who amassed too much power in a government bureaucracy. Perhaps I naively believed that J. Edgar Hoover’s unchecked control of the FBI was a historical aberration. Interestingly it is relevant to recognize, as presented by MacArthur Award winning documentary film maker Stanley Nelson, that J. Edgar Hoover’s rise to prominence in the United States ‘intelligence’ community was based on his surveillance and disruption of the activities of Black Nationalist leader, Marcus Garvey. So MLK was by no means alone among Hoover’s targets. In fact, it could be argued that two of the most distinguished men of 20th century America (in addition to many everyday people) endured the surveillance and harassment of Hoover’s FBI. These two men are of course MLK but also – Albert Einstein, the renowned physicist, social justice activist, and critic of American racism. For those interested in this piece of history, I refer you to The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret War Against the Famous Scientist by Fred Jerome.
However another, probably more fundamental reason, why I had a rather casual attitude about the FBI surveillance of Dr. King was due to my awareness of the more brutal aspects of the US Government surveillance and disruption of the activities of African-American (and other) freedom fighters, known as the FBI “Cointelpro” initiative.
All of us have various defining moments on our lives. In 1969, I was 16 years old. I had been nurtured in a home, both my parents’ home and grandmother’s home, where civil rights issues had been the most compelling source of discussion throughout my childhood. I had lived through the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and MLK, as rather distant news items. Probably as I moved into a more mature stage of adolescence, I was profoundly distressed by the news of the police raid and murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, I believe on December 4th 1969 in Chicago.
I commiserated in grief for several days, I stayed home from school, I discussed it with one or two of my friends, and I was convinced it was an action by the Chicago police in concert with government agents, as alleged by the Black Panther Party. For those of you who do not know, in the 1980’s Fred Hampton’s widow, and the other survivors of the government’s cowardly raid and murder of Fred Hampton and his group, were awarded a multimillion dollar, civil settlement through the federal courts for the government role in the extra-legal execution of the African-American freedom fighters. That means, it was established they were murdered. I say it was cowardly because while Hampton and his colleagues did have arms, in the home at the time of the raid, a paid government infiltrator, who had prepared their dinner the night before, had drugged Hampton, Clark and the others to facilitate the pre-meditated government lethal assault. So for this reason also, I maintained a rather casual attitude about the FBI surveillance of Dr. King.
More recently the issue of government surveillance of MLK was resurrected in my mind, as I prepared for the 2004 MLK Holiday Celebration here in town. I was concerned about the conception of MLK as a celebrated figure, and concerned that the concept of Dr. King, as a controversial figure, was being lost. Today everyone embraces Dr. King, even the current US President, arguably the most politically reactionary and anti-Civil Rights President of the post WWII era, quotes and claims to embrace Dr. King. Yet the fact, that in his day, King was the target of surveillance, slander, disruption and terroristic threats, seems to have been lost.
Today everyone can look back and recognize that King fought to empower African-Americans, and all poor people, and to salvage American democracy. But in his day this appreciation of Dr. King and his work was not so widespread. It is easy to recognize human rights violations, such as Jim Crow segregation, in the past, but during his time King was characterized as a subversive, an Agitator, a simple trouble-maker. And this realization should challenge us to question whether we can recognize the human rights violations in our time, in our midst.
So as I prepared for the 2004 MLK Holiday Celebration we included in our program information about the US government “Cointelpro” campaign against Dr. King which I will discuss further below.
How is it that a man quoted, revered, and celebrated today, was subjected to surveillance by his own government, in his time? And it was not just surveillance, it was surveillance and harassment, it was bribery and disruption. And let’s be clear about it, I’m not referring to surveillance by the drowsy, southern, agricultural states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, or Georgia. We’re not talking about surveillance authorized by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, or John Ashcroft, or even Edwin Meese. We’re talking about government surveillance authorized by the Democratic Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the quintessential Kennedy liberal democratic.
So what do we know about the facts of the FBI surveillance of Dr. King? Much of what follows is from the 1976 US Senate Select Committee Report on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, popularly known as the ‘Church Committee Report’, which is accessible via internet. In 1962 the FBI opened its investigation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its, President MLK. The investigation was conducted under a FBI manual provision captioned “COMINFIL” an acronym for communist infiltration – this provision, authorized investigation of legitimate noncommunist organizations, which the FBI believed to be influenced by communist party members. However, the FBI had kept close watch of Dr. King, long before opening its formal investigation. As early as 1957, Hoover had reacted to the formation of the SCLC by reminding agents in the field “…you should remain alert for public source information concerning it (SCLC) in connection with the racial situation.” In May of 1962, Hoover had included King on “Section A of the Reserve Index” as a person to be rounded up and detained in the event of a “national emergency”. Records reveal that Dr. King had been the subject of FBI surveillance in a program titled “Racial Matters” dating back to the late 1950’s. The first written allegations of communist infiltration of the SCLC appeared in a report from the FBI to Attorney General Robert Kennedy dated 1/8/62. Two SCLC staffers, who were advisers to Dr. King, were allegedly communists.
Continued...
