Martin Luther King

[the-peoples-struggle]

There are many allegations, usually from right-wing hacks, that MLK was a "Communist". The FBI tried relentlessly to smear him a Commie. What do any of you guys know about this claim, or the campaign the FBI waged against King? Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing if he was, not in our opinions anyways, but during the 50's and 60's it's safe to say it would have been a "negative" thing according to the status quo, to say the least.

I truly do not see how an ordained Baptist minister ever would have been a Commie, but maybe I'm wrong? Any input whatsoever would be appreciated.

[Bannockburn]

One word: COINTELPRO.

[novemba]

One word: COINTELPRO.

[Hampton]

As was just mentioned before, COINTELPRO had a lot to do with that. From the Church report, it details what the FBI did to Martin..good, yet very long, read.

If you have the Ward Churchill book COINTELPRO read that instead.

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/c...lreportIIIb.htm (http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIb.htm)


The FBI's COMINFIL investigation appears to have centered almost entirely on discussions among Dr. King and his advisers about proposed civil rights activities rather than on whether those advisers were in fact agents of the Communist Party. Although the FBI conducted disruptive programs -- COINTELPROs -- against alleged communists whom it believed were attempting to influence civil rights organizations, the Bureau did not undertake to discredit the individual whom it considered Dr. King's most "dangerous"' adviser until more than four years after opening the COMINFIL investigation. 21 Moreover, when a field office reported to FBI headquarters in 1964 that the Adviser was not then under the influence and control of the Communist Party, the FBI did not curtail either its investigations or discrediting program against Dr. King, and we have no indication that the Bureau informed the Justice Department of this finding. 22 Rather than trying to discredit the alleged communists it believed were attempting to influence Dr. King, the Bureau adopted the curious tactic of trying to discredit the supposed target of Communist Party interest -- Dr. King himself.

Allegations of communist influence on Dr. King's organization must not divert attention from the fact that, as the FBI now states, its activities were unjustified and improper. In light of the Bureau's remarks about Dr. King, its reactions to his criticisms, the viciousness of its campaign to destroy him, and its failure to take comparable measures against the Advisers that it believed were communists, it is highly questionable whether the FBI's stated motivation was valid. It was certainly not justification for continuing the investigation of Dr. King for over six years, or for carrying out the attempts to destroy him.


Despite the fact that the investigation of Dr. King failed to produce evidence that Dr. King was a communist, or that he was being influenced to act in a way inimical to American interests, no responsible Government official ever asked the FBI to terminate the investigation. Their inaction appears to have stemmed from a belief that it was safer to permit the FBI to conduct the investigation than to stop the Bureau and run the risk of charges that the FBI was being muzzled for political reasons.

Burke Marshall testified that the "charges" made by the Bureau against Adviser A "were grave and serious." The Kennedy Administration had been outspoken in its support of Dr. King, and ordering the FBI to terminate its investigation would, in Marshall's opinion, "have run the risk" that there would have been a lot of complaints that the Bureau had been blocked for political reasons from investigating serious charges about communist infiltration in the civil rights, movement. 52

[Jimmie Higgins]

Originally posted by the-peoples-[email protected] 15 2005, 11:42 PM
There are many allegations, usually from right-wing hacks, that MLK was a "Communist". The FBI tried relentlessly to smear him a Commie. What do any of you guys know about this claim, or the campaign the FBI waged against King? Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing if he was, not in our opinions anyways, but during the 50's and 60's it's safe to say it would have been a "negative" thing according to the status quo, to say the least.

I truly do not see how an ordained Baptist minister ever would have been a Commie, but maybe I'm wrong? Any input whatsoever would be appreciated.
He'd be called a Terrorist today. It was supposed guilt by association, he was an activist for causes that the CP and socialists in general had been ivolved and continued to be involved in. He resisted systematic racism, he came out against the war and finally, he connected race and class by linking civil rights with combating poverty (then they just had to kill him). He is justly considered a hero (though watered down and simplified considerably in the mainstream as a nonviolent "dreamer") but he was not a communist.

[Morpheus]

MLK was a democratic socialist, not a communist.

[BuyOurEverything]

Oh, I didn't see this thread when I started mine. Anyways, no he was not a communist, and in fact he spoke out against communism (Can't remember an example off the top of my head, but if anyone disagrees, I can google it). Communist back then just meant anyone that disagreed with the government.

[Tekun]

Ward Churchill is da man