Reference News, July 23 report - According to the Associated Press on July 21, the Trump administration released documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the surveillance of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated, which has been opposed by his family and civil rights organizations.
This batch of digital archives contains more than 230,000 pages of documents. Since the FBI first collected and transferred these files to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in 1977, the archive has been under a court order restricting access.
The two surviving children of King, 67-year-old Martin III and 62-year-old Bernice, stated in a statement released on July 21 that "the assassination of their father has always captured public interest for decades," but they emphasized the privacy of the event, urging the public to "review these documents within the complete historical context."
Their family had already obtained the archives and formed a team to review them. Even as the government made the documents available for public viewing, the review process continued. The documents include leads obtained by the FBI after King's assassination, as well as details about the Central Intelligence Agency's monitoring of King's transition in the last years of his life toward international anti-war and anti-poverty movements. It is currently unclear whether these documents will provide new insights into King's life, the civil rights movement, or the circumstances of his assassination.
The statement said: "As Dr. King's children, his death remains our deep pain. We respectfully ask those involved to treat these documents with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's enduring sorrow."
The statement reiterated the long-standing view of the King family that James Earl Ray, who was convicted of killing King, was not acting alone.
King was only 39 years old when he was killed, and Bernice was just 5 years old, while Martin III was 10 years old.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence called this declassification "unprecedented," stating that many records were digitized for the first time, and praised President Donald Trump for his role in pushing for this action.
After taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order requiring the declassification of files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, as well as files related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
In addition to fulfilling Trump's order, this move also aimed to divert attention from another major news story involving Trump, as he tried to soothe supporters' anger over his government's handling of the Epstein sex trafficking investigation records.
Bernice and Martin III did not mention Trump in their statement on Monday. However, Bernice later posted a black-and-white photo of her father on her Instagram account, captioned "Now, deal with the Epstein files."
"Trump releasing the files on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. has nothing to do with transparency or justice," said Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights movement leader in the United States. "It is a desperate attempt to shift attention away from the uproar caused by Trump's Epstein files."
The King's archives were originally scheduled to be sealed until 2027, until a Department of Justice lawyer asked a federal judge to lift the seal earlier. Scholars, history enthusiasts, and journalists have been preparing to study these documents to gain new information about King's assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
According to EFE on July 21, the Martin Luther King Center, founded by the wife of the civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., criticized the decision by the Trump administration to announce the declassification of the file on the assassination of the civil rights leader.
The center questioned the timing of the declassification and warned that it might divert attention from the deep injustices still present in the United States and globally.
"Given the numerous pressing issues and injustices facing American and global society, this timing is inappropriate and regrettable," the center stated in a statement.
These archives were declassified according to an executive order issued by President Trump.
The center pointed out that the key issue is not who killed King, but the structural causes behind the crime, and reiterated the U.S. government's surveillance of King at that time.
The center again called for fighting the "three evils" that King condemned: racism, poverty, and violence, and reminded people that King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, exactly one year after he delivered a speech against the Vietnam War, in which he accused the United States of being "the world's greatest producer of violence." (Translated by Lin Zhaohui, Liu Lifi)
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