Documents / FOIA release

The Assassination of Martin Luther King.

Central Intelligence Agency · 166 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This CIA FOIA release contains an April 1968 dispatch, UFGA-29877, summarizing how Cuban media covered the assassination of Martin Luther King from 5 to 8 April. The dispatch quotes Granma and Havana radio stations, including statements by Stokely Carmichael and others that call for revolutionary violence. The release also includes May 1971 cables and a memo to the FBI on Americans at the World Peace Council conference in Budapest, where King was posthumously awarded the Joliot-Curie Gold Medal.

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WILL RISE FROM THEIR GRAVES AND FORM AN INVINCIBLE ARMY. RADIO LIBERACION, APRIL, P.M. EDITORIAL COMMENTS CRITICIZING THE NON-VIOLENT LINE WHICH WAS ADVOCATED BY LUTHER KING, SAYING THAT THIS LINE WAS INOPERATIVE. MARTIN LUTHER KING DID NOT PREACH VIOLENCE BUT HE WAS THE VICTIM OF VIOLENCE. HE DID NOT

UNLEASH VIOLENCE BUT VIOLENCE MOWED HIM DOWN.

RADIO HABANA, APRIL 68, P.M. JOHNSON POSTPONED HIS TRIP. HE CALLED THE CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS--WHO WERE MORE OR LESS UNDER CONTROL--TO GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE. JOHNSON APPEARED ON TELEVISION. HE EXPRESSED HIS ANGUISH AND HIS SORROW. HE MADE INSPIRED COMMENTS ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING. THESE ACTIONS AND THESE WORDS HIDE FEAR OVER THE WAVE OF JUST VIOLENCE WHICH IS STARTING TO SPREAD THROUGH THE UNITED STATES." AT A TIME WHEN COMPLEX INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS MIGHT BE UNDERWAY, UNDER DIFFICULT CONDITIONS, THIS NEW CRIME WIDENS THE CHASM WHICH DIVIDES THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES AND INCITES THE PEOPLE TO PROMOTE DISTURBANCES WHOSE FAR-REACHING EFFECTS ARE HARD TO PREDICT." THE ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING CONFIRMS THAT THE VIOLENCE OF IMPERIALIST RACISTS IS ONLY ANSWERED EFFECTIVELY WITH THE VIOLENCE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE."

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About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 166 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.