Trump administration released FBI records on MLK Jr. despite his family's opposition

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The release involves more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

King’s family, including his two living children, Martin III and Bernice, were given advance notice of the release and had their own teams reviewing the records ahead of the public disclosure.

In a lengthy statement released Monday, the two living King children called their father’s case a “captivating public curiosity for decades.” But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.”

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By BILL BARROW
Updated 4:03 PM EDT, July 21, 2025


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/martin-luther-king-fbi-files-donald-trump-1a58c3f0c9ec8878e487434e0d372b81