MLK biographer David Garrow has reviewed summaries of FBI tapings and surveillance of the great civil rights leader.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/30/irresponsible-historians-attack-david-garrows-mlk-allegations/
The summaries not only assert the now common knowledge he had affairs, perhaps almost understandable given he was good looking, famous and charismatic like JFK. But they also assert his sexual proclivities spilled over into abusive and debauched behaviour. One summary alleges King witnessed a rape and even gave advice.
The FBI, of course, at the direction of the nasty, pug-faced Hoover, was out to get King. This bias may have been transferred to eager-to-please field agents. The actual archived tapes won't be released until 2027. Hopefully, I'll still be alive and hear that the summaries were greatly exaggerated. But the pessimist in me worries.
Barrow's assertions are, of course, being immediately weaponized by scumbags like Dinesh D'Souza. Garrow has been personally attacked. Perhaps the tapes can be made to be released early and quench speculation.
Unfortunately the WaPo story is behind a paywall for me.
ReplyDeleteA couple of thoughts:
* Human nature being what it is, and law enforcement culture being what it always has been, some individual FBI agents may have needed but little encouragement from Hoover to paint a black "suspect" like King in the worst possible light
* The idea of FBI chicanery, which has been on sort of a low simmer since all the controversies around the special prosecutor investigation of the Trump campaign commenced; this has been one of the most frequent counterpunches of Trump's supporters: that officials in the FBI and other intelligence agencies are part of the "deep state" out to get him. Expect the heat on those theories to be turned up in coming weeks/months as Barr's counter-investigation of the genesis of that special prosecutor investigation ramps up. The reputations of various FBI, Justice Dept. and other employees will be publicly called into question.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/28/a_hard_rains_gonna_fall_on_obamas_bad_cops_and_spies_140429.html
The truism which sprung to my mind on reading the realclearpolitics article was that "accusation is a form of confession". In other words, when I point my finger at you there are three pointing back at me.
Delete"Perhaps the tapes can be made to be released early and quench speculation." Except it won't quench speculation . It'll just start conspiracy theories. So maybe it's better to let it wait until 2027. It's not as though there isn't anything else going on in the interim.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to make of this. Garrow's biography of King deserved the Pulitzer back in '68 or whenever. But of course it was eclipsed by Taylor Branch's trilogy, which effectively left wannabe King scholars with not much to do until 2027 when the FBI files are released. And the FBI files are -- as Garrow himself said -- a magpie's nest of items chosen to please the chief magpie. So there you are. And new conspiracy theories will fester, as Katherine, no doubt correctly, predicts.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the provenance of the Garrow's essay, the secular equivalent of where anti-Francis bishops go to bellyache.
And finally there is the Trump-pardoned felon and general gasbag D'Souza, as Stanley mentions. It has been impossible to take hims seriously since he was "reminded of the free speech riots in California" in one of his books, and a reviewer pointed out that he has quite a memory since what he was reminded of happened when he was 9 years old and living in India.
But the explainers of the D'Souza pardoner will certainly raise the question of whether the FBI was any different under Mueller and Comey than it was under Jedgar. To which the quick answer is: Neither of them had a private box for the racing season at Santa Anita in California.
That King violated the 6th Commandment is generally known. How regularly may (or may not) be known by the FBI files. But he never had to be pardoned for a felony, and he never destroyed small businesses by refusing to pay and daring them to sue him. As Willie Stark said, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corrupution; he passes from the stink of the didie to the stench of the grave. There is something on everybody." I doubt that King's extramarital life will leave that many people aghast, especially compared to the famous white men of his day. Too bad we don't have an FBI file on Jedgar.
That quote should end "stench of the shroud." Robert Penn Warren was much more poetic than my prosaic memory.
DeleteWe will likely never know the whole truth.
ReplyDeleteIt is very possible that the FBI engaged in KGB type tactics, e.g. planting women to seduce King, or creating situations that King became involved in.
We should not assume that all the people around King were more loyal to him than to money. Some might have been envious of him and enjoyed his downfall.