MLK/FBI

Can we finally admit that racism flows thru the veins of our country?

This is a documentary that explores the FBI’s secret attempt to ruin Martin Luther King. At the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, our government engaged in an active wire-tap program to publicly expose his marital affairs and destroy his standing in the Civil Rights Movement that he led.

There was just one problem tormenting Hoover and his racist minions.  Given that Fox News did not exist at that time, no TV network, much less a newspaper, would run the story even when it was leaked.  Imagine what Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson or Rush Limbaugh would have done had they been around.

What enraged me as much as anything was that the U. S. Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, authorized this despicable conduct.  Though he remains a hero on many levels in my eyes, it is hard to forgive him.

Interspersed throughout the film are clips of actual TV series focusing on the FBI.  Despite their reprehensible conduct concerning MLK, they were always painted as champions who battled criminals while preserving American freedoms.  Come on now, who of you over 50 do not remember Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.?

The film serves as a disgusting reminder of how Hoover made sure that the FBI was composed of largely white men.  You are left wondering if the hatred of MLK trickled down from top to bottom in law enforcement. Would MLK have survived assassination in 1968 had he been given better police protection?

As I watched this film, I was reminded of how racial prejudice still poisons much of our country. Think of our previous President who wanted to preserve the memory of Confederate heroes while basing his phony election fraud allegations on black voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Think of the recent resignation of Newfield’s Art Museum’s President Charles Venable following his call to preserve white membership along with white Indiana Republican lawmakers booing Black lawmakers during a recent floor debate.

Ironically, the entire FBI file containing their MLK wire taps will be released later this decade. Given their contents and the method obtained, the honest, decent thing would be to destroy them.