Index/Topics/FBI Smear Campaign Against Martin Luther King Jr.

FBI Smear Campaign Against Martin Luther King Jr.

FBI's campaign to discredit Martin Luther King Jr. through surveillance and fabricated materials

Fact-Checks

6 results
Jan 18, 2026
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What did historian David Garrow reveal about MLK's personal life?

David J. Garrow published a controversial essay drawing on newly released FBI files that alleges extensive sexual misconduct by Martin Luther King Jr. — including numerous extramarital affairs, solici...

Jan 19, 2026
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What evidence exists in FBI files about Martin Luther King Jr.'s alleged affairs?

The FBI files contain extensive surveillance material — wiretap transcripts, memos and an anonymous “blackmail” package — that the bureau compiled and circulated in efforts to document and exploit Mar...

Jan 19, 2026
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MLK promiscuous

The available reporting shows multiple sources alleging that Martin Luther King Jr. engaged in extramarital sexual relationships, with much of the documentary “evidence” coming from FBI wiretaps and r...

Jan 21, 2026

What exactly did Ralph Abernathy claim about Martin Luther King Jr. in And the Walls Came Tumbling Down?

1989 autobiography alleges that engaged in extramarital sexual activity on the night of April 3–4, 1968, the night before his assassination—specifically that King spent parts of that night alone with ...

Jan 20, 2026

How have historians evaluated the credibility of the wiretap transcripts and FBI surveillance about MLK's personal life?

Historians treat the FBI’s wiretap tapes and surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. as authentic primary materials that illuminate both King’s strategic thinking and the Bureau’s campaign against him,...

Jan 20, 2026

What evidence do historians consider strongest and weakest in FBI files about Martin Luther King Jr.?

The FBI files on Martin Luther King Jr. provide historians with some of the most meticulously recorded primary material about King’s movements, communications and the Bureau’s own counterintelligence ...