Getty The US clergyman and civil rights leader Martin Luther King addresses, 29 March 1966 in Paris' Sport Palace the militants of the "Movement for the Peace". "Martin Luther King was assassinated on 04 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Hidden among the JFK documents just released by the National Archives are a series of documents about Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The National Archives’ servers appear slammed and the documents are very large (with some compressed files being 2 GB or more), but lists of the contents for each file are quickly viewable.
MLK was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and many of these documents are listed from 1968. JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
Getty28th August 1963: President John F. Kennedy in the White House with leaders of the civil rights ‘March on Washington’, including MLK.
Here is a list of some of the MLK files that are included among the JFK files just released. Because these documents must be downloaded before they can be viewed, and the servers are running slow, it’s not yet known what these documents contain, and there may be more MLK-related documents than found in this list. We’ll add to this list as that information becomes available:
- CABLE: Subject had amazing resemblance — April 10, 1968
- CABLE: Has not yet ruled out possibility — April 19, 1968
- FBI has positively identified accused assassin — April 19, 1968
- Dispatch: Transmittal of photographs of alias Eric Starvo Galt — April 22, 1968
- Dispatch: James Early Ray, AKA Eric Starvo Galt, Harvey Lowmyer, John — April 22, 1968
- CABLE: FBI advises that matching OG fingerprints proves — April 23, 1968
- CABLE: Three photos James Earl Ray appeared “El Diario” — April 23, 1968
- MF: James Earl Ray — April 23, 1968
- CABLE: All pertinent information James Earl Ray passed — April 26, 1968
- Official Routing Slip: Our files on Martin Luther King Reveal — October 22, 1975
- Official Routing Slip: There is no indication in the files on James Earl Ray — October 23, 1975
- Attorney General Ramsey Clark announced today that Eric Starvo Galt — January 1, 1968
- MFR: Unknown Subject, possibly identifiable with Eric Starvo Galt — April 19, 1968
- Routing and Record sheet: RE King Assassination — May 1, 1968
- MF: Investigation in of report on suspicion actions of subject originally described as resembling suspected assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — May 16, 1968
- Cable: Initial details of Ray’s arrest — June 8, 1968
- Cable: Tracing has produced no evidence that… — April 19, 1968
- Cable: Has had to prepare two summaries — April 12, 1968
- Cable: American involvement in Anti-Vietnam War — April 13, 1968 (Not known if this is related to MLK, but he spoke out against the Vietnam War about a year before he died)
- Investigation of death of Martin Luther King. Junior — April 18, 1968 & April 25, 1968
- Dispatch: Reports that the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King … — April 29, 1968
- Report: Meeting of Dr. Martin Luther King — Sept. 28, 1964
- Dispatch: Meeting of Dr. Martin Luther King — October 20, 1964
- Dispatch: Publication of articles by Dr. Martin Luther King — Nov. 17, 1964
- MEMO: Martin Luther King — Nov. 30, 1964
- REPORT: King, Martin Luther — November 5, 1967
- REPORT: Views on black militant situation in Chicago — October 5, 1967
- REPORT: Views on domestic racial situation and the new politics convention — October 5, 1967
- DISPATCH: Communist comments on the death of Martin Luther King/Reference to “Black Power” concept — April 10, 1968
- King/Ray FOIA — January 1, 2000
This is a developing story. More details about what is in the files will be added.
Learn how to access the files in Heavy’s story below:
