On Monday, the Trump administration made public hundreds of thousands of pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a move that has raised concerns from the civil rights leader’s family.
“The American public has been waiting for almost sixty years to uncover the complete extent of the federal government’s inquiry into the assassination of Dr. King,” stated Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
“We are committed to leaving no stone unturned in our pursuit of full transparency regarding this significant and tragic event in our nation’s history.”
Gabbard announced the release of over 230,000 pages of documents, stating they would be published with minimal redactions to protect privacy.
Upon taking office, President Donald Trump enacted an executive order that declassified documents related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. from the 1960s.
The National Archives made public records about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963 in March, as well as files connected to the murder of Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968, which were released in April.
In April 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, King was assassinated. James Earl Ray, who was convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., passed away in prison in 1998. However, King’s children have voiced scepticism regarding Ray’s role as the actual assassin.
On Monday, the two surviving children of Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, issued a statement expressing their support for transparency and historical accountability. However, they voiced concerns that the records might be utilised to undermine their father’s legacy.
A joint statement revealed that the civil rights leader faced a “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign” during his lifetime, orchestrated by former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
According to sources, the FBI campaign aimed to “discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement.” “These actions represent not just invasions of privacy, but also deliberate attacks on the truth.”
“We urge individuals interacting with the release of these files to approach it with empathy, restraint, and a deep respect for our family’s ongoing grief,” they stated.
The Warren Commission, tasked with examining the assassination of John F. Kennedy, concluded that the act was perpetrated solely by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine sharpshooter.
The formal conclusion has not succeeded in dispelling the ongoing speculation surrounding the possibility of a more nefarious plot behind Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas. Additionally, the gradual release of government files has further intensified various conspiracy theories.
Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and a former attorney general, was tragically assassinated during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sirhan Sirhan, who was born in Palestine and holds Jordanian nationality, has been convicted of murder and is currently serving a life sentence in a California prison.
