Sealed FBI audio tapes allege Martin Luther King Jr. had affairs with 40 women and watched while a friend raped a woman
Documents describing secret FBI recordings allege Martin Luther King Jr. had affairs with 40 women and watched on as a pastor raped a woman in the 1960s, a new report claimed.
According to London's The Times, an article written by the King biographer David Garrow and set to be published in the June edition of the UK magazine Standpoint details newly released FBI memos that discuss the tapes.
The tapes - sealed until 2027 in the US National Archives - hold recordings from bugs placed in hotel rooms King used in the 1960s, when they suspected his aide Stanley Levison was a Communist.
Business Insider has contacted The King Center for comment on the report but has not yet received a response.
The tapes were made as part of an illegal FBI surveillance project that began in 1955 and continued until King was assassinated in 1968. The FBI was trying to gather negative information about King in hopes of using it to discredit him. Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was personally obsessed with bringing down King.
Given that context ? and given Garrow's lack of access to the tapes themselves, in addition to the fact that the Standpoint article has not yet been published ? Garrow's claims raise questions about the accuracy of the evidence and the motives of the FBI agents who created the documents. In a separate article describing the magazine's rationale for publishing the story, Standpoint's acting editor, Michael Mosbacher, said Garrow's work was previously rejected by The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. A number of unnamed conservative magazines in the US also shied away. Mosbacher does not explain why they rejected it, although he implies they felt it was too controversial.
However, Garrow's 1986 biography of King won the Pulitzer Prize, so his new material will be difficult to ignore.
Documents describing secret FBI recordings allege Martin Luther King Jr. had affairs with 40 women and watched on as a pastor raped a woman in the 1960s, a new report claimed.
According to London's The Times, an article written by the King biographer David Garrow and set to be published in the June edition of the UK magazine Standpoint details newly released FBI memos that discuss the tapes.
The tapes - sealed until 2027 in the US National Archives - hold recordings from bugs placed in hotel rooms King used in the 1960s, when they suspected his aide Stanley Levison was a Communist.
Business Insider has contacted The King Center for comment on the report but has not yet received a response.
The tapes were made as part of an illegal FBI surveillance project that began in 1955 and continued until King was assassinated in 1968. The FBI was trying to gather negative information about King in hopes of using it to discredit him. Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was personally obsessed with bringing down King.
Given that context ? and given Garrow's lack of access to the tapes themselves, in addition to the fact that the Standpoint article has not yet been published ? Garrow's claims raise questions about the accuracy of the evidence and the motives of the FBI agents who created the documents. In a separate article describing the magazine's rationale for publishing the story, Standpoint's acting editor, Michael Mosbacher, said Garrow's work was previously rejected by The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. A number of unnamed conservative magazines in the US also shied away. Mosbacher does not explain why they rejected it, although he implies they felt it was too controversial.
However, Garrow's 1986 biography of King won the Pulitzer Prize, so his new material will be difficult to ignore.
