The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s, even wiretapping his phones, because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of “abuse and overreach” in its history.
The civil rights leader’s family asked those who engage with the files to “do so with empathy, restraint and respect for our family’s continuing grief” and condemned “any attempts to misuse the documents”.
“Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realisation of his dream, a society rooted in compassion, unity and equality,” they said in a statement.
“During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory and deeply disturbing misinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J Edgar Hoover through the FBI,” the family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said, referring to the then-FBI director.
James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998.
King’s family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding “our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme. The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views the verdict as an affirmation of our long-held belief”.
Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC’s Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 justice department report called his claims dubious.
Reuters