Martin Luther King Jr. – Sharing History

The House Select Committee on Assassinations

March 29, 2024April 2, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On March 29, 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations released a report that compounded years of research on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The committee, which performed its research from 1976-1979, released a report of their findings, which included their belief that federal intelligence agencies did not perform adequate investigations into the possibility of conspiracy in the assassination plots of the two American leaders.

In September 1976, the U.S. House of Representatives formed a committee to investigate the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (Dallas, 1963) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Memphis, 1968). The House of Representatives believed they had cause to open such an investigation given their responsibility to respond to their constituents’ concerns about how government intelligence agencies performed during the investigations. According to a Gallup Poll taken at the time, 80% of Americans believed that President Kennedy’s assassination had been a conspiracy, and 60% believed that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination had been a conspiracy despite reports from the government indicating otherwise. Conspiracy theories had begun to take root among the American public, and the nation’s representatives felt it was wise to put the issue to rest.

As the committee began their research, they identified four issues to be investigated in particular: “First, who was or were the assassin(s) of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Second, did the assassin(s) have any aid or assistance either before or after the assassination(s). Third, did the agencies and departments of the U.S. Government adequately perform their duties and functions in (a) collecting and sharing information prior to the assassination; (b) protecting John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and (c) conducting investigations into each assassination and coordinating the results of those investigations? Fourth, given the evidence the committee uncovered, are the amendment of existing legislation or the enactment of new legislation appropriate?”

The report, released in March 1979, found that, in the case of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there was acoustic evidence that there was a second shooter (this evidence has since been debunked). The committee felt that this evidence pointed to the possibility of a conspiracy that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to adequately look into. The report also said that the committee did not believe that the Soviet or Cuban governments, the anti-Castro Cuban groups, the organized crime syndicate, or the various U.S. intelligence groups were involved in the assassination plot. In the case of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the committee reported that they believed there was a possibility of conspiracy. They believed that the FBI, in the process of their own investigation of King, “grossly abused and exceeded its legal authority and failed to consider the possibility that actions threatening bodily harm to Dr. King might be encouraged by the program.” They also reported that they felt the FBI failed to adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy. The report ended by recommending that the Department of Justice review the committee’s findings and decide whether to further investigate the claims. Both cases have been reopened and investigated at various times over the ensuing 45 years; however, no concrete evidence of larger conspiracies have surfaced.

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60 Years Ago: I Have a Dream

August 29, 2023August 29, 2023US HistoryLeave a Comment

60 years ago, today, on August 28, 1963, over 250,000 people gathered near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In search of freedom and jobs, this group marched on Washington demanding equality under the law. The impact of this march cannot be understated. It is believed that this event built the momentum needed in the Civil Rights Movement to pass the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act over the next two years.

The March on Washington was organized by the leaders the six large civil rights groups of the time. A peaceful demonstration, the protestors involved aimed to draw attention to the discrimination of Black Americans and their inability to find jobs created by the New Deal program. In a New York Times article written a few days before the march, we read, “In conception and in planning, the March on Washington is expressive of the American tradition of peaceable assembly and petition for a redress of grievances . . . the elimination of unequal treatment is the common responsibility of all of us. . .”

The March on Washington is perhaps best remembered for the speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in which he said, “I have a dream . . . I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood . . . I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Less than one year after this iconic speech was delivered, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, which prohibited discrimination in public places, integrated public schools, and ended employment discrimination.

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Stick with Love: Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021Civil Rights Movement, Uncategorized3 Comments

In 2021, what ode can we write, what words can we say that will adequately honor the legacy of civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

We can talk about the basic facts of his life– that he was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia and was descended from ministers and farmers, that he attended Morehouse College in the tradition of his father and maternal grandfather, that he earned his doctorate at Boston College and married Coretta Scott in 1953.

But it all seems inadequate when compared to what he really meant to history.

We can remember that moment in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama– where King was serving as the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church– when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus and was arrested. This was the second incident of its kind and the catalyzing event that led to the 365-day Montgomery Bus Boycott.

And it was this moment that brought him from a very gifted pastor to a global symbol of the fight for equality and civil rights.

We can stop and ponder what it meant to walk to work or to the grocery store or to church, regardless of the distance for one full year. That meant getting up early and staying up late and enduring threats along the way.

King said of the boycott, “I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. And we are not wrong.… If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong.”

Of course King was not wrong, the courts moved to end segregation of the buses in Montgomery, and in the backwards glance of history, it is so easy to see the glorious change this moment brought to the world, and so easy to forget what he and others went through to get there. King was arrested and his house was bombed during the boycott, and as we know, he would go on to pay larger and larger prices for his activism including surviving a knife attack, a total of 29 arrests and eventually, he would pay the ultimate price.

And through it all, he decided, as he said in 1967, to stick with love, “And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems…and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear.”

From the sit-ins and non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama in April of 1963 to his iconic “I have a dream” speech given at the March on Washington in August of that same year, King’s rhetoric and calls to action inspired a generation to no longer quietly acquiesce to the segregation and inequality of the past, but to fight for freedom from oppression.

At the March on Washington, he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

An amazing video of this speech can be seen here.

Had he lived, Dr. King would have celebrated his 92nd birthday this week, but sadly, he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 39. He once beautifully wrote:

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

I believe that despite all of the ways in which progress has just been too slow and systemic racism has gone on for far too long, that he would still, despite everything “stick with love.”

For more on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., visit these resources:

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute Research and Education Institute at Stanford University
Wikipedia: Martin Luther King Jr.
“I Have a Dream” speech
University of Pennsylvania, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”