Community notes slap FBI's Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative post with reminder the bureau sought his ruin

The FBI joined other government agencies Monday in noting their newfound appreciation for civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr., for whom the day was made a federal holiday in 1983. Now with Twitter under different management and X's community notes feature fully engaged, there was little chance of the bureau's commemorative post squeaking by unscathed.

"This #MLKDay, the #FBI honors one of the most prominent leaders of the Civil Rights movement and reaffirms its commitment to Dr. King's legacy of fairness and equal justice for all," said the Jan. 15 post.

The post was promptly slapped with community notes painting the FBI as the villain in King's story.

"The FBI engaged in surveillance of King, attempted to discredit him, and used manipulation tactics to influence him to stop organizing," said the community note. "King's family believe the FBI was responsible for his death."

While a jury determined in 1999 civil case that "government agencies" had been party to a conspiracy to assassinate King, the community note insinuating the FBI specifically had a hand in King's death does not appear to have been substantiated. The other damning claims about the FBI are, however, a matter of record.

The FBI's commitment

The FBI began surveilling MLK in December 1955 during his involvement with the Montgomery bus boycott, according to an FBI memorandum. Despite its understanding that King was an advocate of nonviolence, the bureau continued to execute covert operations against the civil rights leader for the remainder of his short life, which ended with his assassination on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was especially antipathetic to King, suggesting in one memo that he acted like "a tom cat with obsessive degenerate sexual urges," reported the New York Times.

Hoover's intense dislike for King appeared to have less to do with the activist's adultery and more to do with fears the activist might align himself with the Communist Party, according to MLK documentarian Sam Pollard.

Although King had a communist attorney and other leftists in his orbit, the FBI obtained evidence that King regarded communism as an "alien philosophy." Nevertheless, the bureau painted King as a "whole-hearted Marxist who has studied it [Marxism], believes it and agrees with it, but because of his being a minister of religion, does not dare to espouse it publicly."

The Senate's Church Committee on U.S. intelligence overreach later reported in the 1970s that "rather than trying to discredit the alleged Communists it believed were attempting to influence Dr. King, the Bureau adopted a curious tactic of trying to discredit the supposed target of Communist Party interest — Dr. King himself."

According to the Senate report, the big fear was that King would become a political "'messiah' who could 'unify, and electrify,' the movement."

After King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, an FBI characterized him as "the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country," reported Newsweek.

The committee also confirmed in 1975 that the FBI was responsible for the so-called "suicide letter" in 1964, which denigrated and dehumanized King, told him the "end is approaching," and stressed, "there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is."

The bureau ultimately sought to prevent King from speaking, teaching, writing and publishing, and meeting — a tradition the FBI has continued to this day. For example, the FBI has in recent months and years targeted conservative Christians as "potential domestic terrorists" and apparently worked to suppress undesirable speech online.

Social media justice

The community notes on the FBI Martin Luther King Jr. Day post were widely celebrated.

Among those who found this check on the FBI amusing was All-American, all-female swim star Riley Gaines, who wrote, "X is the only platform where a government agency like the FBI can be fact checked in real time by regular ole people ... too good."

Matt Welch, the editor of the libertarian publication Reason, responded, "The only comment you should ever make on this holiday is an apology."

Doug Stafford, chief strategist for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), wrote, "In honor of #MLKDay the @FBI would like you to know they now spy on all Americans, not just civil rights leaders."

After getting ridiculed and mocked over its X post, the FBI told Fox News Digital, "The FBI has long acknowledged the abuses of power that took place under Director J. Edgar Hoover and the deplorable actions taken against Dr. King and others involved in the civil rights movement."

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