[CTRL] FBI Investigated King's Successor

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

 -Caveat Lector-

Sunday July 11 12:24 PM ET

FBI Investigated King's Successor
By DAVID PACE Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Within a month of the assassination of Martin Luther King
Jr., the FBI began investigating King's successor, looking for the same type
of ``immoral activities'' the bureau had tried to use to discredit King,
newly released FBI files show.

The files, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of
Information Act, include an April 22, 1968, memo from FBI headquarters
ordering an investigation of the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy. He had been
King's right-hand man since the two led the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott in
1955 that launched the civil rights movement. Abernathy died in 1990.

The memo asked the Atlanta FBI office to search its files for ``background
information'' on Abernathy and to begin following all his activities
``through established informants and sources.'' The investigation continued
until 1974.

FBI spokesman Tron W. Brekke said the Abernathy files ``should be viewed in
their historical context and should in no way infer that the FBI currently
initiates investigations utilizing the standards of that era.''

Before King's April 4, 1968, assassination, the FBI had used wiretaps to
gather detailed information about his private life and extramarital affairs
and had leaked it to reporters and government officials in attempts to
discredit him.

The FBI files on Abernathy - previously released only to an attorney for
James Earl Ray, the man who pleaded guilty to killing King - suggest the FBI
under former Director J. Edgar Hoover hoped to use similar information to
discredit Abernathy after he became president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.

``Little information has been developed regarding promiscuous activity on
the part of Abernathy,'' the Atlanta FBI office told headquarters in an
April 29, 1968, memo responding to what Atlanta called ``the bureau's recent
request for information dealing with immoral activities on the part of''
Abernathy.

Atlanta noted that FBI headquarters in 1964 had been sent transcripts from a
1958 Alabama court case in which a woman accused Abernathy of having
``normal and abnormal sexual relations'' with her when she was 15. It also
noted that Abernathy had contact with a woman in San Francisco in 1965
``that suggested a degree of affection between them.''

``Our limited knowledge of Ralph Abernathy suggests he might have had some
extramarital experiences,'' the Atlanta office concluded. ``It by no means
supports the conclusion his experience has been extensive or may be
continuing.''

A month later, Hoover had the Washington, D.C., field office checking out
allegations that Abernathy was ``involved in illicit relations with white
women'' and had been ``beaten by five Negroes who surprised him in bed with
a white woman.''

The Washington office reported back that three confidential sources, as well
as the local police department and the U.S. Park Police, had been unable to
confirm any aspect of the allegation. The FBI files do not provide the
source of the allegation.

The FBI files, heavily censored to remove information considered by the FBI
to infringe on the privacy rights of others, include several instances in
which the bureau used sexual information in an attempt to undermine
Abernathy.

In November 1968, FBI headquarters approved sending a detailed report on the
woman's testimony from the 1958 Alabama Court case to church officials in
Pittsburgh, where Abernathy was scheduled to speak.

In 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew called Hoover to complain about
Abernathy's ``inflammatory pronouncements.'' Hoover wrote that Agnew ``said
he thought he was going to have to start destroying Abernathy's credibility
so anything I can give him would be appreciated.''

The next day, the FBI sent Agnew a report that included ``militant
statements'' by Abernathy, as well as ``information about sexual immorality,
Abernathy's luxurious accommodations during the Poor People's Campaign and
his support of the Black Panther party.''

Abernathy had complained in 1975, when the FBI's attempts to discredit King
were fully disclosed by a Senate investigation, that he had been
investigated by the FBI far more than King.

His FBI files, however, do not bear that out. While the bureau released
1,169 pages of Abernathy files, its preassassination file on King includes
some 16,000 pages. There also is no evidence in the files that Abernathy
ever was the target of an FBI wiretap.

Abernathy was ostracized by many prominent civil rights leaders shortly
before his death because he wrote in his 1989 autobiography that King had a
weakness for women and that on the night before he was killed, he had sexual
encounters with two women and fought with a third.

--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind or thunder, who
want to see the fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that
faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this
book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and
dates"
    -Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ: 9815080   Operator Taliesin_2 of #SacredNemeton on IRC PaganPaths

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