Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today is widely acknowledged as a hero, a martyr in the long struggle to end racial prejudice and inequality in America.
But during his lifetime King provoked far more contempt than admiration, especially by a power structure that viewed him as a threat to the established order and white hegemony.
“We must mark him now,” read a 1963 FBI memo, “as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security.”
That warning was sent by the bureau’s chief of domestic intelligence two days after the famed March on Washington where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s among the declassified documents that appear in MLK/FBI, Sam Pollard’s documentary which last week earned a place on the Oscar shortlist. The film dissects the sustained effort by the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover...
But during his lifetime King provoked far more contempt than admiration, especially by a power structure that viewed him as a threat to the established order and white hegemony.
“We must mark him now,” read a 1963 FBI memo, “as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security.”
That warning was sent by the bureau’s chief of domestic intelligence two days after the famed March on Washington where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s among the declassified documents that appear in MLK/FBI, Sam Pollard’s documentary which last week earned a place on the Oscar shortlist. The film dissects the sustained effort by the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover...
- 2/18/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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