The release of a newly discovered, uncensored 1964 letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., urging him, in graphic language, to kill himself, has experts on contemporary race relations pointing to a glass both half empty and half full.
A heavily redacted version of the missive, sent to Dr. King just days before he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and threatening to expose King’s extra-marital affairs, is well-known to historians. But the full extent of the racist and abusive language had not been available until now. Yale historian Beverly Gage discovered the note in the National Archives while researching a book on J. Edgar Hoover. The New York Times published it on Wednesday.
“This is a good moment to see just how much things have changed since the 1960s,” says historian Jerald Podair, who teaches courses on race relations at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. The note was authorized by then-director J. Edgar Hoover and clearly shows the animosity and abusive tactics the agency was willing to authorize to not just discredit but destroy the civil rights leader.
The so-called “suicide letter” reads in part:
Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure. You will find yourself in all your dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk exposed on the record for all time …. You will find on the record for all time your filthy, dirty, evil companions, male and females giving expression with you to your hideous [sic] abnormalities. It is all there on the record, your sexual orgies. Listen to yourself you filthy, abnormal animal. You are on the record.
A heavily redacted version of the missive, sent to Dr. King just days before he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and threatening to expose King’s extra-marital affairs, is well-known to historians. But the full extent of the racist and abusive language had not been available until now. Yale historian Beverly Gage discovered the note in the National Archives while researching a book on J. Edgar Hoover. The New York Times published it on Wednesday.
“This is a good moment to see just how much things have changed since the 1960s,” says historian Jerald Podair, who teaches courses on race relations at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. The note was authorized by then-director J. Edgar Hoover and clearly shows the animosity and abusive tactics the agency was willing to authorize to not just discredit but destroy the civil rights leader.
The so-called “suicide letter” reads in part:
Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure. You will find yourself in all your dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk exposed on the record for all time …. You will find on the record for all time your filthy, dirty, evil companions, male and females giving expression with you to your hideous [sic] abnormalities. It is all there on the record, your sexual orgies. Listen to yourself you filthy, abnormal animal. You are on the record.
