The
FBI–King suicide letter or
blackmail package was an anonymous 1964 letter and package by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) meant to blackmail
Martin Luther King Jr.[1] The suicide letter was part of the FBI's
COINTELPRO operation against King.
History
On November 21, 1964, a package that contained the letter and a tape recording allegedly of King's sexual indiscretions was delivered to
Coretta Scott King, the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., and later to King Jr. Although the letter was anonymously written, Martin Luther King Jr. correctly suspected the FBI sent the package.
[1][2] Coretta Scott King said the tapes comprised only "mumbo jumbo".
[3] The letter does not specify precisely what action it is urging King to undertake; King understood the letter as advocating that he commit suicide,
[1] although some have suggested that it was merely urging him to decline the
Nobel Peace Prize (which he won in 1964)
[4] or step out of leadership.
[1]
On March 8, 1971, an activist group called the
Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized a local office of the FBI in
Media, Pennsylvania, and stole classified documents. Part of those documents revealed a secret FBI operation called
COINTELPRO. Those documents were later sent to newspapers and members of the
United States Congress. During the
Church Committee hearings and investigations in 1975, a copy of the "suicide letter" was discovered in the work files of
William C. Sullivan, deputy FBI director.
[5] He has been suggested as its author.
[6][1] Once the surveillance tapes of King were publicly revealed,
Bernard Lee and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) sought to have tapes gained by wiretaps destroyed in a lawsuit.
[7] Their request was denied by
United States District Court for the District of Columbia judge
John Lewis Smith Jr.[7] He ordered all tapes sealed until the year 2027 and placed into the
National Archives and Records Administration.
[7]
Since 1977, attempts have been made to release the recordings in the
United States Congress.
Republican Senator Jesse Helms from
North Carolina in 1983 sought to reveal information about King in order to undermine the establishment of
Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
[8] The
Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection bill, which would designate King government files for "presumption of immediate disclosure", was introduced in Congress by
Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney from
Georgia in 2002 and 2005, by Democratic Senator
John Kerry from
Massachusetts in 2006, and by Democratic Representative
John Lewis from Georgia in 2010, but never passed by Congress.
A copy of the letter is known to exist in
J. Edgar Hoover's confidential files at the
National Archives.
[1]
