Did The FBI Spy on Martin Luther King?

The untold story of FBI surveillance against the Civil Rights movement.

Hot History

Nov 25, 2023

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“I Have A Dream”

King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. It was one of the most monumental speeches of the entire 20th century. The Kennedy White House and the Attorney General were mesmerized by it. But a mile down Pennsylvania Avenue, the speech was not so well-received by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Hoover regarded the Civil Rights movement with deep suspicion. He felt it was a nefarious communist plot to turn blacks against the United States. The Director denounced MLK as “the most dangerous Negro in this country,” and accused him of demagoguery. Upon Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson became the new president. Since Johnson was a white Southerner, Hoover saw in him a friend and an ally. The Civil Rights bill had been introduced by President Kennedy, but it was still stalled in Congress. Days into his presidency, Johnson spoke on the phone with King. The black Civil Rights leader praised the new president in public. Protests in the Deep South had created the conditions for Middle America to support a radical Civil Rights bill. It was now up to Johnson to overcome the opposition to Civil Rights within Congress among Republicans and Southern white Democrats. Johnson turned to the liberal-minded Senator Hubert Humphrey. The president made concerted efforts to persuade Senator Richard Russell, a Southern leader. But Russell threatened that the South would never vote for the Civil Rights bill. Meanwhile, Hoover had his own skepticism toward the Civil Rights movement. He regarded its leaders as left-wing agitators being bankrolled by the Kremlin. The man was fiercely anti-communist. The FBI Director denounced the Soviets, accusing them of an “international conspiracy against God and freedom.” He urged American vigilance against the Red Menace, with which he associated the Civil Rights movement. Under Hoover’s direction, the Bureau used a vast array of surreptitious methods to spy on Civil Rights leaders. He claimed that the movement had been infiltrated by communists, and was aligned with the Soviet-funded Communist Party USA. Bugging, telephone tapping, burglary, forgery, and other dirty tactics were used.

Operation Zorro

In August of 1963, Hoover created a special unit to surveil Martin Luther King and his inner circle. One was Stanley Levison, a Jewish lawyer. The other was a young socialist named Clarence Jones. Hoover persuade Attorney General Robert Kennedy to authorize spying on the black preacher. Kennedy reluctantly agreed to a trial month of secret surveillance. The program on Dr. King was called Operation Zorro. Assistant Director William Sullivan was placed in charge of Hoover’s special unit. It arranged for hidden microphones in hotel rooms used by King. Prostitutes were planted in his offices, posing as secretaries. Finding little evidence of communist ties, the Bureau began to pry into King’s private life. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was placed under 24-hour surveillance. In December of 1963, FBI agents set up shop in an unoccupied building on the opposite of the street. They took photographs of everyone who met King. It was the most expansive surveillance operation ever untaken by the FBI. Inside the Bureau’s Atlanta headquarters, ten agents were tasked with overhearing all of King’s phone calls. The FBI placed microphones all over King’s hotel room. They claimed they found evidence of King’s extramarital affairs. Hoover met with the president in the Oval Office. Having served as Director for four decades, the 65-year-old Hoover faced mandatory retirement. Only special legislation was able to prevent this. A long-time friend of Hoover, President Johnson signed a bill to prevent the Director’s retirement. During the St. Augustine movement, King and other Civil Rights leaders challenged racial segregation in the schools of Florida. This campaign successfully mobilized public opinion in favor of a Civil Rights law. To diffuse the movement, the FBI continued to surveil Dr. King. They forged letters addressed to King’s wife, which appeared to show that the Civil Rights leader had engaged in sexual affairs with his inner circle. Using psychological warfare, FBI agents intentionally called firetrucks to disrupt King. The FBI even wrote a letter urging King to commit suicide.

Jenkins affair

Going into the election of 1964, Lyndon Johnson’s campaign was completely derailed by a scandal. On the evening of October 7, White House Chief of Staff Walter Jenkins left his office at the end of an eighteen hour day. He walked to a nearby YMCA, where he was caught in a lavatory with another man. Jenkins was arrested on anti-homosexual charges. But the real motive for the persecution was far more sinister and political. He was one of the few who had seen the FBI’s abuses of power against King. He also knew plenty of personal secrets about President Johnson, which could have opened him up to blackmail. Johnson was especially anxious at election time, and he immediately accepted Jenkins’ resignation. But Ladybird Johnson, a compassionate woman who was running her own campaign in the Midwest, refused to betray a lifelong personal friend. Republican opponent Barry Goldwater happily exploited the scandal, accusing President Johnson of knowingly hiring a homosexual. The GOP went further, making accusations about a second closet homosexual. Under pressure, Johnson asked Hoover to investigate his administration officials for any signs of sexual deviancy. The anxious president turned to Reverend Billy Graham, who offered prayers. But Hoover had much more to offer than prayers, when he formally cleared President Johnson of any wrongdoing. Having saved Johnson, the FBI Director was now in an ideal position to continue his war against Martin Luther King.

Abuse of power

When Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize, Hoover flew up in a rage. The FBI’s Domestic Intelligence Division prepared a book called Martin Luther King Jr: His Personal Conduct. It was sent to Bill Moyers, the president’s deputy chief of staff. Other copies were sent to State Secretary Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara at the Pentagon, and John McCone at the CIA. But Hoover wanted to share his files on King with the public. He ordered his staff in the press to leak the story to Los Angeles Times writer David Kraslow. The story claimed that King had a number of sexual escapades. Raunchy tapes were played as alleged evidence of King’s bedtime affairs. No one in the press wanted to pick up the strange story, which was widely regarded as an overreaching intrusion into personal privacy. In the press, Hoover publicly condemned King as “the most notorious liar in the country.” FBI agents redacted the incriminating tapes against King. The Bureau sent a threatening letter to the Civil Rights leader, telling him to kill himself. But this became the last of the most outrageous attempts by Hoover and his FBI to discredit Martin Luther King. The rogue Director continued to spy on and harass Dr. King all throughout the Johnson years, until the preacher’s death in 1968. Hoover himself died in 1972. Three years later, the King surveillance tapes became public knowledge. The Court ruled their content be sealed until the year 2027.