MLK 'threat to national security' according to Army, says Memphis paper

[EVDebs]

"In 1993 the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, following a 16-month investigation, revealed that by 1963 Army Intelligence considered King a threat to the country's security. Dr. King wasn't the first member of his family to bear such scrutiny. The Army began watching King's maternal grandfather, Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, in September, 1917. When King's father, Rev. M.L. King, Sr., became pastor of the same church, the Army started watching him, too. In 1947, while still a college student, King himself became the target of government spies and informers. The Army, beginning in 1917, feared that the black population was ripe for subversion by foreign interests, so they tried to keep its pulse on that community. A lot of the spying was done by black informers.

In the case of King, however, the Army (and the FBI) went high-tech. In early 1963 King led a march in Birmingham that resulted in widespread arrests of marchers over a month-long period. Maj. Gen. Charles Billingslea, commander of the 2nd Division, sent a plea for help to his superiors, saying he feared a full-scale revolt in Birmingham. President John F. Kennedy ordered an additional 3,000 troops into the area."

from http://crimemagazine.com/Assassinations/who.htm

The article goes on to say the Army even used U-2 spy planes to surveillance Dr. King. It is no wonder the King family and Wm. Pepper won a verdict from a Memphis jury in 1999 !

The government and the US Army and FBI owe the King family an apology.

The fear this man generated, unarmed, is just incredible !

[BlueEyedSon]

1. So was John Lennon. Go figure.

Imagine world peace & justice. Whoa, that would really fuck up the US global agenda!

[RC]

3. Whoda thunk that

Peace and justice could generate such animosity. A lot of people apparently.

[bpilgrim]

2. anyone who has the ear of the masses is an enemy of the state

a christian religious leader is to be especially feared in this christain nation unless they are speaking for the AUTHORITY.


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

[Zan_of_Texas]

4. No kidding? 1917?

That is really interesting.

Some of my research into things like the attempted coup against FDR has uncovered names of wealthy people and families then that are still prominent today. It's like each generation keeps fighting the same battle over and over again. Lehman. DuPont. JP Morgan. Sinclair. Kean.

[EVDebs]

5. Look up USMC Gen Smedley D. Butler and Plot to Seize the White House

in 1932. Bush family members lurked in the plot. What I can't believe is that 'was the army acting on its own' ?

[420inTN]

6. They feared a communist revolution ...

among the African-American population. Or, at least, a communist-inspired revolution.

Among those who believe that Dr. King was actually assasinated by our government, it is argued that Dr. King was beginning to endorse/support communism. Therefore, he had to go.

I don't know how true this is, but supposedly Karl Marx believed that the country most likely to have a proletariat revolution was the United States, while the least likely was Imperial Russia.

[JDPriestly]

7. Can you imagine how they are watching us today

now that they have more sophisticated technology. What a waste of time and money. When I was a child, my grandmother lived across the street from an old lady who looked out her window all day, nosing into other people's business. If my grandmother made the slightest unusual move, like go to the grocery store at an unexpected time, she would call or come over to see why. She gossiped constantly and was a big troublemaker. Government snoopers are today's equivalent of that old lady.

What surprises me is that they started watching King while he wss still a college student. Was he already an activist?

[damntexdem]

8. It's a tribute to the impact that he had.

He really did have them shaking in their boots. That he was a pacifist just made it that much worse for them: army generals afraid of a pacifist. What a laugh! But they were right to fear, because what he preached WAS a threat to them.

[Rex]

9. Irony?

Of course the Army viewed King as a threat - he was preaching PEACE and NON-VIOLENCE! That runs counter to the Armies purpose - kill, maim and murder.

The same could be said for Big D's proposal for a Department of Peace. He was marginalized for the thought because there is no profit in peace.

[Zinfandel]

10. Pure racism. The hate of ones skin color is amazing and disgusting

to me.

[Merlin]

11. The army had sniper teams on the roofs of several buildings...

surrounding King's Memphis motel--supposedly to "protect" him.

Yeah, right!