Memphis, tenn. (AP) – Federal records in connection with the investigation of the murder of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from 1968 after the disclosure in March by tens of thousands of documents on the murder of President John F. Kennedy from 1963.
In January, President Donald Trump ordered the publication of thousands of classified government documents about Kennedy’s murder and at the same time moved the records of the deaths in connection with the deaths of New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy and King more than five decades ago.
Trump ordered the director of the National Secret Services Tulsi Gabbard and Attorney General Pam Bondi to coordinate with other government officials in order to review records in connection with the RFK and King attacks and to present a plan for their “complete release” to the Republican President. Around 10,000 pages with records about the RFK murder were published on April 18.
The lawyers of the Ministry of Justice asked a federal judge to end a sealing decision for the records almost two years before his expiry date. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who headed King, is one of the records for data protection reasons. The organization’s lawyers said that the king’s relatives also wanted to keep the files under Seehel.
Scientists, those interested in history and journalists have prepared to study the documents in order to find up-to-date information about the civil rights leaders on April 4, 1968, attack in Memphis, Tennessee.
The King family’s explanation, which was published in January after Trump’s command, said the family hoped to get the opportunity to check the files before their publication. The von King family, including his two living children Martin III and Bernice, confessed the release on Monday in advance and had their own teams checked the records before public disclosure.
In an explanation on Monday, King’s Children had described the case of her father for decades a “fascinating public curiosity”. However, they emphasized the personal nature of the matter and demanded: “These files must be viewed in their full historical context.”
“We ask those who deal with the publication of these files to do this with empathy, reluctance and respect for the continuing grief of our family,” the explanation said.
Here is what we know about the attack and what the scholars had to say before the documents were published:
In Memphis, shots ring out
King stood on the balcony of Lorraine Motel and went to dinner with friends when he was shot.
King was in Memphis to support a sanitary employee who protests against indigent working conditions and low payment. The night before the assassination attempt, King held the celebrated speech “mountain summit” on a stormy night in the Mason Temple in Memphis.
A at the beginning of March in the Beale Street had become violent, and King had returned to Memphis to lead another march as an expression -free protests. King had also planned the indigent people’s campaign to speak against economic injustice.
The investigation of the FBI
After a long search, James Earl Ray was captured in London and he was guilty of murdering the king. He later waived this plea and kept his innocence until his death in 1998.
FBI documents that have been published over the years show how the King’s telephone lines office annoyed its hotel rooms and used informants to get information against him.
“He was relentlessly attacked by an invasive, predatory and deeply worrying disinformation and surveillance campaign,” said the King family.
The reaction of the King family to the investigation
Members of the von King family and others wondered whether Ray acted alone or whether he was involved. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, asked for the reopening of the probe, and in 1998 General provider Janet Reno pointed out the Civil Rights Department of the US Ministry of Justice to do so.
The Ministry of Justice said that “nothing had been found to disturb the judicial determination of 1969 that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King”.
Dexter King, one of King’s Children, met Ray in prison in 1997 and said that he thinks Ray’s innocent claims. Dexter King died in 2024.
With the support of the von King family, a civil trial before the state court in Memphis against Loyd Jowers was held in 1999, a man who allegedly knew about a conspiracy to murder King. Dozens of witnesses said, and a jury from Memphis found Jowers and unnamed other, including government agencies, to murder the king. Jowers died in 2000.
What will the public see in the newly published documents?
It is unclear what the records will show.
For example, King scholars would like to see what information the FBI discussed and circulated as part of its investigation, said Ryan Jones, director of history, interpretation and curatorial services in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
“This is due to the fact that the American public does not know at that time that the FBI, which is involved in the investigation, led a smear campaign to discredit the same man while he was alive,” said Jones. “They were the same office that received evidence of attempts at assassination against King and ignored them.”
Academics who have studied King would also like to see information about the monitoring of the King of the FBI, including the extent that was possible to maintain details of his personal life, to follow him and to discredit him as an anti -American and educational institutions at Stanford University, said Lerone A. Martin.
However, Martin said that he did not expect the documents to have a “smoking weapon that will finally say that the FBI was involved in this assassination.”
“We have to look at these documents with an eye of suspicion because the FBI was ready to go to discredit him,” said Martin.
Why now?
Trump’s command about the publication of the documents said that it is the “national interest” to publish the records.
“Your families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,” said the order.
However, the timing has led to the skepticism of some observers.
Jones asked why the American public couldn’t see these documents much earlier.
“Why were they sealed because of national security when the assassin was in prison outside of Nashville?” he said.
Jones said there are scientists who believe that the publication of the records is a “PR -Stunt” of a presidential administration that “rewrite and leave out the progress of some people who are bound to people with color or diversity”.
The Pentagon was provided by legislators and citizens about the removal of military heroes and historical mentions of websites of the Ministry of Defense and Social Media, after relieving online content that advertised women or minorities. In response, the department restored some of these contributions.
Martin said Trump’s motivation could be part of the efforts to lose doubts about government institutions.
“It could be an opportunity for the Trump government to say:” See, the FBI is enraged, I tried to tell you that. That’s why I (FBI director) put Kash Patel into office because he cleaned up the deep state, “said Martin.
Another factor could be the two attempts in Trump’s life because he campaigned for a second term of office by the President and the desire to “uncover the broader history of the US attacks,” said Brian Kwoba, professor of associated history at the University of Memphis.
“That means it is still a bit confusing because it is not clear why a US president, including Trump, wants to open files that could be harmful to the United States and his image both in the USA and abroad,” he said.
