Another April 4 has quietly come and gone
30th May 2017 · 0 Comments
By A. Peter Bailey
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist
Another April 4 has rather quietly come and gone. It’s way past time for those who considered themselves as supporters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to cease demeaning his tremendous legacy by basically reducing him to “I Have A Dream.”
Anyone who reads Dr. King’s last book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, published less than a year before he was assassinated knows that Dr. King was much, much more than a dreamer.
No one knew this better than J. Edgar Hoover and his partners in the FBI. Their position is graphically illustrated in a memo written by then FBI Assistant Director, William E. Sullivan who was a close colleague of J. Edgar for some 30 years.
Dated January 8, 1964, the memo, originally published in The Nation magazine, June 17, 1975, went as follows:
“We know that Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King (deletion, deletion) represents a very real security problem in this country. In addition to (deletion), Dr. King, as we know, for some time now has been (deletion). Apart from the security factor, he is a disgrace to the Negro people of this country because of his (deletion) while at the same time purporting to be a minister of the gospel. Obviously he has the capacity to deceive people very successfully. This was made evident most recently by his being selected by Time magazine as the Man of the Year.
Further we know that he has been able to cleverly deceive both very important Protestant and Catholic organizations, securing thereby support from them which gives him added stature. It should be very clear to all of us that Martin Luther King must, at some propitious point in the future, be revealed to the people of this country and to his Negro followers as being what he actually is — a fraud, demagogue and moral scoundrel. When the true facts concerning his activities are presented, such should be enough, if handled properly, to take him off his pedestal and to reduce him completely in influence so that he will no longer be a security problem and no longer will be deceiving and misleading the Negro people.
When this is done and it can be and will be done, obviously much confusion will reign, particularly among the Negro people. There will be embarrassment, frustration, confusion, and resentment. Because of this and the emotional reaction that will set in, it is not unlikely that movements like the Nation of Islam could benefit greatly. Further, other ridiculous developments similar to the Old Father Divine and Daddy Grace organizations may appear. The Negroes will be left without a national leader of sufficiently compelling personality to steer them in the proper direction. This is what could happen, but need not happen if this right kind of national Negro leader could at this time be gradually developed so as to overshadow Dr. King and be in the position to assume the role of leadership of the Negro people when King has been completely discredited.
For some months I have been thinking about this matter. One day I had an opportunity to explore this from a philosophical and sociological standpoint with (deletion) whom I have known for some years. As I previously reported, (deletion) is a very able fellow , (deletion) and one on whom I can rely. I asked (deletion) to give the matter some attention and if he knew any Negro of outstanding intelligence and ability to let me know and we would have a discussion. (Deletion) has submitted to me the name of the above captain person.
Enclosed with this memorandum is an outline of (deletion) biography which is truly remarkable for a man so young, having been born (deletion) 1932. On scanning this biography, it will be seen that (deletion) does have all the qualifications of national leadership. I won’t go into all his accomplishments and qualifications in this memorandum for it will only take a minute or two to scan the enclosed biography.
On first blush I know it can be said it is not the concern of the Bureau what happens to the Negroes when Martin Luther King has been discredited. This can be said, but I think it is a very short-sighted view. It is our concern if large numbers of them go into the Nation of Islam and other extremist groups with which we are concerned as an investigative agency. It is our concern if the Communist Party would be able to capitalize on this confusion. Further, from a positive and constructive standpoint it would be of a great advantage to have leading the Negro people a truly brilliant, honorable, and loyal Negro who… could steer the 20 million Negroes away from communism. I think in a very sound sense this necessarily must be of great interest to us. It would be most helpful to have a man like (deletion) leading the Negroes to whom we could go, if necessary, and rely upon in sensitive matters over which this bureau has jurisdiction.
I want to make it clear at once that I don’t propose that the FBI in any way become involved openly as the sponsor of a Negro leader to overshadow Martin Luther King. As far as I am concerned, this is not an issue at all. But I do propose that I be given permission to explore further this entire matter with (deletion) and any other person known to both (deletion) and myself who could be helpful. If this thing can be set up properly without the Bureau in any way becoming directly involved, I think it would be not only a great help to the FBI but would be a fine thing for the country at large. While I am not specifying at the moment, there are various ways in which the FBI could give this entire matter the proper direction and development. There are highly placed contacts of the FBI who might be very helpful to further such a step. These can be discussed in detail later when I have probed more fully into the possibilities.”
J. Edgar responded to the memo by accepting Sullivan’s proposal and added, “I am glad that light has finally, though dismally delayed, come to the domestic Int. Dir. I struggled for months to get over the fact that Communists were taking over the racial movement but our experts here couldn’t or wouldn’t see it.”
This document should be read every year on April 4 to remind everyone of why Dr. King was assassinated.
This article originally published in the May 29, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
