The FBI–King suicide letter or blackmail package was an anonymous 1964 letter and package by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which was allegedly meant to blackmail Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into committing suicide.[1] However, despite popular belief, it remains unclear what the letter's intentions were.
On November 21, 1964, a package that contained the letter and a tape recording allegedly of King's sexual indiscretions was delivered to King's address. Although the letter was anonymously written, King correctly suspected the FBI sent the package.[1] King's wife Coretta Scott said the tapes comprised only mumbo jumbo. The letter does not specify exactly what action it is urging King to undertake; King understood the letter to advocate that he commit suicide, although some have suggested that it was urging him to decline the Nobel Peace Prize which he was awarded in 1964, or step out of leadership. Portions of the letter which were revealed in 2014 noted that the letter praised "older leaders" of the civil rights movement such as Roy Wilkins.
On March 8, 1971, an activist group called the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized a local office of the FBI in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole classified documents. Parts of them exposed a secret FBI operation called COINTELPRO. Those documents were later sent to newspapers and members of the United States Congress. During the Church Committee hearings and investigations in 1975, a copy of the "suicide letter" was discovered in the work files of William C. Sullivan, deputy FBI director. He has been suggested as its author.[1] Once the existence of surveillance tapes of King was publicly revealed, Bernard Lee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) filed a lawsuit to have tapes from wiretaps destroyed.[2] Their request was denied by United States District Court for the District of Columbia judge John Lewis Smith Jr.[2] He ordered all tapes sealed for 50 years and placed into the National Archives and Records Administration.[2]
Since 1977, attempts have been made to release the recordings in the United States Congress. Republican Senator Jesse Helms from North Carolina in 1983 sought to reveal information about King in order to undermine the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.[3] The Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection bill, which would designate King government files for "presumption of immediate disclosure", was introduced in Congress by Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney from Georgia in 2002 and 2005, by Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts in 2006, and by Democratic Representative John Lewis from Georgia in 2010, but never passed by Congress.
The full letter was discovered in J. Edgar Hoover's confidential files at the National Archives in 2014 by historian Beverly Gage. It was soon published in The New York Times, with only one name being redacted because "The Times could not verify or disprove the claims about her." Gage noted that some still claim the letter's intent was "simply meant to push King out, not induce suicide." and that an uncovered portion of the letter suggested that FBI wanted King to step down and let other men lead the civil rights movement, stating that "Another uncovered portion of the note praises “older leaders” like the N.A.A.C.P. executive director Roy Wilkins, urging King to step aside and let other men lead the civil rights movement."
The text of the letter is as follows:
. Abernathy. Ralph David. Ralph Abernathy. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography. 2010. Lawrence Hill Books. 9781569762790.
. Garrow. David J.. David Garrow. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From "Solo" to Memphis. 2015. Open Road Media. 9781504011532.
. Gentry. Curt. Curt Gentry. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. 2001. W. W. Norton & Company. 9780393343502.
. Kotz. Nick. Nick Kotz. Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America. 2006. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 9780618641833. registration.