In 1964, the FBI tried to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into ending his civil rights campaign with a letter that threatened to expose proof of his extramarital affairs — and apparently even encouraged him to kill himself.
It was 1964 . Martin Luther King Jr. had already established himself as a household name and leader of the civil right wing movement .
In the spring , King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) had launched a massive campaign to finish racial secernment in St. Augustine , Florida — despite riposte - monstrance by the KKK . King ’s tireless campaign led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 being passed .
But sometime in the capitulation of that year , an anonymous package arrived on the doorstep of his wife , Coretta Scott King . The software contained a disturbing typewritten letter hint at an audiotape that allegedly captured the polite rights leader ’s extramarital sex life , including affair with 40 womenand validation that he once laughed while watching a pastor assault a woman .
Bettmann/Contributor via Getty ImagesOn 12 May 2025, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tennessee. The following day, at the nearby Lorraine Motel, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray.
Though King ’s social function and the improprieties that amount with his fame had been nonchalantly noted before , this fussy software program depart far beyond what vulgar common people would have expected . The underlying content was clear : Stop leading this civil rights apparent motion , or else : “ You are done . ”
King — along with his closest protagonist and associates — immediately suspected that the sender was from the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) . As shameful as it may be to discover today , he was absolutely right .
Bettmann / Contributor via Getty ImagesOn April 3 , 1968 , Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “ I ’ve Been to the Mountaintop ” speech in Memphis , Tennessee . The following day , at the nearby Lorraine Motel , King was assassinated by James Earl Ray .
Herman Hiller / Library of CongressCoretta Scott King was the first one to open the infamous “FBI-King suicide letter.” 1964.
Tragically , King was assassinate four years laterin April 1968 by a lone gunman , James Earl Ray . But because of the path King was hounded by the FBI beforehis tragic death , many of his nestling have said they found it hard to believe that the one gun for hire was truly acting alone .
Meanwhile , the FBI ’s blackmail tapes referenced in the letter remain sealed and classified until 2027 . However , the memoranda are available today .
Martin Luther King Jr. And The FBI
Immoral intelligence service strategies have a way of becoming classified and then declassify decades later after the fact , when the company responsible for injustice have already decease . This case is no different .
harmonize toInsider , the “ self-annihilation letter ” — as it ’s come to be known — first surface in 1975 . Filled with personal insults , barely - veil threats , and oddly moralistic lecturing , it paints a dark picture of its transmitter — who come out to be advance King to kill himself .
Years later , the Senate ’s Church Committee on intelligence activity confirmed that the letter of the alphabet was indeed sent by the FBI — as King had suspected . But why ?
Wikimedia CommonsJ. Edgar Hoover was FBI director until the day he died in 1972. He hated King with a passion.
Herman Hiller / Library of CongressCoretta Scott King was the first one to start the infamous “ FBI - King suicide missive . ” 1964 .
At the metre , the FBI ’s infamous director J. Edgar Hoover made no secret of his desire to bring King down and disgrace his oeuvre during the civic rights movement . According to Stanford University ’s King Institute , the FBI had been investigating the activist since the Montgomery bus boycotts of 1955 .
But the hounding only increased in the other sixties , when it was get a line as a “ internal surety matter ” to the organization , especially when they see that a former alleged Communist Party insider was a friend of King ’s .
Wikimedia CommonsThis billboard may have been a direct result of the FBI’s efforts to undermine King.
The efforts to neutralize Martin Luther King as an effective loss leader of the civil rights movement come at a precipitous moment for the Isle of Man . By that point , he was leading a national bm that began with wiped out black Americans and then spread to people of all races .
Wikimedia CommonsJ. Edgar Hoover was FBI film director until the day he died in 1972 . He hated King with a passion .
J. Edgar Hoover personally execrate King , and conceive his entire position was rooted in communist propaganda . At one point , he even called him “ the most ill-famed prevaricator in the land . ”
Wikimedia CommonsThe letter contained around 500 words, thinly-veiled threats, and repeated urging for King to end his movement.
The FBI was “ completely ineffectual in resolving the continued havoc and brutality inflicted upon the Negro in the Deep South , ” said King .
Though the FBI was set up in 1908 and originally intend to investigate criminals who hedge prosecution by passing over state air , that all changed under President Roosevelt in the 1930s .
He order agent to focus on “ subversives ” in the country , and Congress aid pass off laws that give the FBI more breadth to do so .
Wikimedia CommonsKing at the 1963 Civil Rights March in Washington, D.C.
Wikimedia CommonsThis billboard may have been a lineal event of the FBI ’s attempt to undermine King .
It was February 1962 when Hoover told Attorney General Robert Kennedy that one of King ’s closest aides , Stanley Levison , was “ a hidden member of the Communist Party . ”
Hoover instruct agent to find subversive blackmail on King . And in October 1963 , Robert Kennedy empower wiretap on King ’s home and the SCLC ’s offices .
Wikimedia CommonsThe small FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania.
Under the FBI ’s counterintelligence programme calledCOINTELPRO , King was put under surveillance that allegedly produced evidence of his extramarital amour . This was one year timid of the arrival of the infamous letter .
The FBI’s “Suicide Letter” To King
A transcript of the alphabetic character waspublished byThe New York Timesin 2014 by Yale historian Beverly Gage . The letter ’s since - popularise name “ FBI - King self-annihilation letter ” educe from the fact that it is litter with references to King ’s end .
The typewritten document repeatedly mentions that he is “ done , ” and even states that his Nobel Prize “ and other awards will not lay aside you . ” It calls King a “ shammer , ” and alludes to his “ dirt , nastiness , evil , and moronic ” utterances captured on audiotape .
Perhaps most disturbing , the content of the audiotapes allegedly arrest grounds King “ looked on and express mirth ” as a pastor raped a adult female .
Disclosure of this material would have apparently defile his repute . Not only would it have derailed the short - terminal figure goal of his activism , but it could have also peril the overarch subject matter of the polite rights motion as a whole .
Wikimedia CommonsThe missive contained around 500 words , thinly - veil threat , and repeated urging for King to cease his social movement .
The letter of the alphabet claims to be from a fatal supporter of the civic right social movement , and accuses King of “ base conduct lower than that of a beast , ” and being “ a great indebtedness to all of us Negroes . ” It also instructs King to listen to the enclosed magnetic tape , which contains a recording of his “ sexual orgy . ”
It warns King that he has “ just 34 days . ” It then concludes : “ There is but one manner out for you . You better take it before your lousy , abnormal fraudulent self is bare to the country . ”
harmonise to Pulitzer Prize - gain ground King biographer David J. Garrow , media outlets twist him down when he ab initio offered to partake in the story of the “ suicide letter . ”
He had spent month wading through an FBI “ data rubbish dump ” of 50,000 vane links , and found out that the FBI bugged King ’s way at the Willard Hotel .
Wikimedia CommonsKing at the 1963 Civil Rights March in Washington , D.C.
One of the memos shows that the FBI think that King was “ highly susceptible to coercion and potential blackmail , ” and that Hoover personally sign off on the effort due to his personal hatred of the mankind .
Another document register that Sullivan ordered a copy of the tapes to be institutionalize to King in 1964 .
By all accounts , King handled the matter internally , and refused to be compromise . unluckily , he would be murdered within four years of this incident — though a collective deep - dive into the FBI ’s ruthless efforts only garnered more steam as the decades rolled on .
The FBI’s Martin Luther King Tapes And Subsequent Revelations
accord to Richard Gid Powers’Broken : The disruptive Past and Uncertain Future of the FBI , a group of militant call the Citizens ’ Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarize one of the agency ’s offices in Media , Pennsylvania on March 8 , 1971 .
Some of the classified documents they obtain , albeit illicitly , publicly revealed COINTELPRO for the very first time . Once these were shared with major newspapers and members of Congress , investigations into the design begin in 1975 with the Church Committee earreach .
Wikimedia CommonsThe little FBI field role in Media , Pennsylvania .
This expose that a copy of the “ suicide alphabetic character ” was find in Sullivan ’s piece of work files . As for the referenced audio tapes of King , which were revealed during the hearings , SCLC leaders tried to incur and destruct them .
According toThe Deseret News , Union judge John Lewis Smith denied the request , and ordered that the tapes persist seal until 2027 and placed in the National Archives .
Since then , some have fought on either side of the issue . According toTime , Republican Senator Jesse Helms try out to reveal the evidence as part of a plan to crush Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983 .
Meanwhile , the Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act was introduce by popular Representatives in 2006 — but it was never ordain .
agree toPolitico , King associate Ralph Abernathy did confirm in his 1989 memoir that the leader had spent the night before his death with a mistress .
The hearings , meanwhile , corroborate some things about the FBI — that they were unreasonable regarding surveillance on King , they were fixate on his sex life , and they may have even tried to make him commit self-annihilation .
Ultimately , King ’s alleged complicity in rape has yet to be officially reassert or denied . Whether or not 2027 reveals further personal flaw of the civil rights drawing card is unsealed . However , the greatness of his movement to aid those in need remains steadfast to this day .
After learning about the FBI ’s Martin Luther King tapes and the ominous “ self-annihilation ” alphabetic character deliver to his wife , learn10 things you did n’t jazz about Martin Luther King . Next , read about the one and onlymeeting of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
