Unveiling the Past: Release of King's FBI Files

The U.S. Justice Department has made public more than 240,000 pages of documents concerning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Among these records are FBI files that reveal a surveillance operation aimed at discrediting the prominent civil rights leader and Nobel Laureate.

The National Archives has uploaded the files to its website, with promises of more to come. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, as he shifted his focus toward economic justice and peace. His death intensified a tumultuous year marked by race riots and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

The 1950s and 1960s saw the FBI maintaining files on King, falsely suggesting his links to communism amidst the Cold War. Recent acknowledgments by the FBI recognize this as an era of 'abuse and overreach.' King's family urges those engaging with the documents to remain empathetic, while condemning any misuse of the files.

(With inputs from agencies.)