() The Trump administration recently released more than 230,000 files related to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
It comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order back in January directing full transparency on the assassinations of King, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
What files have been released, and what was learned?
The files that have been released and digitized detail the FBI’s investigation of King’s assassination, as well as documents relating to the international manhunt for James Earl Ray, the man who was convicted of killing King on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Another part of the files includes information about Ray’s former cellmate, who claimed that Ray had discussed an assassination plot.
It also shows the FBI’s surveillance of King before his death, as well as disinformation operations against him.
What are people looking for in the files?
A conspiracy theory surrounding King’s death is related to Ray’s claims that he did not shoot King and was forced to confess by authorities. Some also believe the government and possibly the Mafia were involved in the assassination and that Ray was set up to take the fall.
In 1979, a House committee determined that there was a likelihood Ray acted for monetary gain and that there was likely a conspiracy behind the shooting. The conspiracy likely stemmed from white supremacist groups, rather than the government, the panel said.
King’s two living children, Martin III and Bernice, released a statement in which they called their father’s case a “captivating public curiosity for decades” but asked for “empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”
They also emphasized the personal nature of the matter, urging that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.”
The King Center, a nonprofit founded by Coretta Scott-King in 1968 following King’s death, noted a 1999 wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee, where the jury concluded that Ray was not King’s shooter, and that King’s death was a conspiracy involving Memphis businessman Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme.
“Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs,” the family said.
