The Trump administration has released FBI files about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that were to remain sealed until 2027, over the objections of King’s surviving children. Why now?
Historians say the files contain little information beyond what's already been public information for 40 years. MLK's family urges the public to read them with a critical eye. "We have to view these documents with an eye of suspicion because of the extent the FBI was willing to go to, to try to discredit him," Martin Luther King III said. There's something else suspicious at play.
King's youngest daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King, believes the release is a part of a long campaign to tarnish MLK's legacy and a current effort to distract the public from Trump's alleged connections with Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sexual trafficking.
"During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the family said in a statement. We can't control anti-Blackness, but what we know to be true is that MLK was about his people. We must remember him for this work, and reject any revisionist image they try to promote.
Nothing can be erased when we know the truth about our history. Let's celebrate MLK for the liberation-seeker he was and the generations he continues to inspire.