Lerone A. Martin

Oct 10, 2023 | bostonreview.net | Jeanne Theoharis |Lerone A. Martin

On this day sixty years ago, October 10, 1963, the Department of Justice signed a memo granting the FBI permission to conduct technical, wall-to-wall surveillance on Martin Luther King, Jr. The eloquence and reach of King following the March on Washington had so alarmed the Kennedy administration and the bureau that six weeks later they felt drastic steps had to be taken.

Oct 10, 2023 | time.com | Lerone A. Martin

Sixty years after the FBI marked Martin Luther King Jr. as America’s “most dangerous Negro,” the FBI incorporates the preacher in its new agent training, pledging to honor King by upholding the civil rights of all citizens. While this appears to signal a critical shift in the institution’s culture, nothing could be further from the truth.