The U.S. Department of Justice has released records on the assassination of civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Jr for the first time.
More than 230,000 pages of documents detail the FBI’s investigation into King’s 1968 murder.
The publication of these records comes despite the opposition of King’s two surviving children, who have called for respect for their “family’s continuing grief.”
King’s children also said the files included information about FBI surveillance of him before his death.
MLK Jr
Martin Luther King Jr was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He rose to become one of the most prominent leaders in the American civil rights movement.
At age 35, he became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, recognised for his leadership in the movement, including efforts to end racial segregation in multiple U.S. states.
On 4 April 1968, Dr King was fatally shot while standing on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee.
A man named James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to his murder in 1969.
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Files
The documents published this week include hundreds of thousands of pages detailing the FBI’s investigation into his death. The records, held in the country’s National Archives, had been classified under a court-ordered seal since 1977.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January, calling for the declassification of files related to the assassinations of King, President John F. Kennedy, and his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the move shows the administration’s “pledge of transparency.”
Family
King’s two surviving children said that while they “support transparency and historical accountability,” they hold concerns about potential misuse of the files.
In a public statement, they described the documents as reflecting years of an “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing” surveillance campaign carried out by the FBI against their father.
King’s children also repeated their assertion that Ray was not their father’s murderer.
