New Film Explores FBI’s Secret Effort Against Martin Luther King Jr.

 

There is a famous picture of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. seated for a ride on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

The year was 1956 and King and other activists¹ had led a boycott² of that city's bus system. The movement won an end to laws that restricted Black bus riders.

The picture shows King and another civil rights leader seated at the front of the bus. King is looking out the window, seemingly deep in thought. It was a victorious³ moment, but still very early in the fight for equality for African-Americans.

Ernest Withers⁴ took that picture of King, along with many others. Withers was a central documenter of the civil rights movement. He was also an informant for the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation⁵ (FBI).

A new documentary film, MLK/FBI, is about how the FBI sought someone close to King to watch and report on him. The film from director Sam Pollard shows how its two title subjects came to be enemies.

Pollard shows how FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover used the full force of the law enforcement agency to attack the nonviolent movement for civil rights in the 1960s. Wiretaps, blackmail⁶ and informants were all used in the operations to find legal or moral wrongdoing by King. The spying was part of a wider government campaign to find and destroy suspected communist influences in the U.S.

The activity against King "represents the darkest part of the Bureau's history," former FBI Director James Comey says in the film.

The documentary does not provide new information of major importance. There are not surprise witnesses or shocking discoveries. Most of the details — including King's sexual activities outside his marriage and the FBI's use of Withers as an informant — have been known for years.

But that is not Pollard's interest. His exploration is expansive. He looks back to racist⁷ legal reforms that followed the Civil War and discusses the development of social weaponry based on Black sexuality. He explores how FBI agents were represented in popular culture as singularly powerful and just.

The film is mainly based on the book The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr.: From ‘Solo' to Memphis, by historian David J. Garrow.

The most scandalous material comes late in the movie, after the filmmaker has presented the historical elements connecting the Civil Rights Movement and the U.S. government. By that point, the movie is close to over. But, the story of American intelligence operations that targeted Martin Luther King Jr. is suddenly very clear and frightening.

King's famous speech at the March on Washington took place on August 28, 1963. Two days later, FBI official William C. Sullivan, wrote about King, "We must mark him now as the most dangerous Negro in the future of this Nation..."

Pollard spoke⁸ to historians, reporters and other civil rights activists of the MLK period. However, most are only heard and not seen in the movie. The director also includes short parts of old movies and a lot of music.

The film's messaging, however, is restrained by something out of the director's control. It reports that King faced a "real emotional crisis" after the FBI sent his wife, Coretta Scott King, hurtful information about her husband.

And the film points out that the FBI secretly recorded King while he was dealing⁹ with the crisis. But the movie does not present anything from the FBI tapes. Those records are sealed until at least 2027.

Words in This Story

title –n. the name of a book, song or movie

wiretap –n. a conversation recorded with a device used to secretly record speech on phone calls or similar communications

blackmail –n. threatening to tell secret information about someone unless they pay money or do something that is demanded

scandalous –adj. involving immoral¹⁰ or shocking things that a person has done or is believed to have done

lesson –n. an activity done in order to learn something

sealed –adj. to prevent something from being release or made known

1 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

3 victorious   

adj.胜利的，得胜的

参考例句：

• We are certain to be victorious.我们定会胜利。
• The victorious army returned in triumph.获胜的部队凯旋而归。

4 withers   

马肩隆

参考例句：

• The girl's pitiful history would wring one's withers. 这女孩子的经历令人心碎。
• "I will be there to show you," and so Mr. Withers withdrew. “我会等在那里，领你去看房间的，"威瑟斯先生这样说着，退了出去。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 blackmail   

n.讹诈，敲诈，勒索，胁迫，恫吓

参考例句：

• She demanded ＄1000 blackmail from him.她向他敲诈了1000美元。
• The journalist used blackmail to make the lawyer give him the documents.记者讹诈那名律师交给他文件。

7 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

10 immoral   

adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的

参考例句：

• She was questioned about his immoral conduct toward her.她被询问过有关他对她的不道德行为的情况。
• It is my belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.我相信使核武器是不邪恶的。