This article re-printed from Carolina Press, a nonprofit investigative publication serving all of Western North Carolina. Written by Jon Elliston on January 14, 2016 in Buncombe, Crime and Justice, Documents, Information, Open Government, Politics, Special Reports, Top News
As Martin Luther King Day — Jan. 18 this year — celebrates 86 years since the civil rights leader’s birth, FBI files reveal much about King’s brief but weighty times here (in Western North Carolina), including parts of the bureau’s campaign to monitor and discredit him.
King visited Western North Carolina at two key moments in the civil rights movement, for a strategic retreat at Black Mountain in 1964 and a groundbreaking sermon in Montreat in 1965.
During both appearances, the FBI was hot on King’s trail, according to declassified FBI files collected by Carolina Public Press from several archives and published below.
The records show that even as the bureau’s leadership, including and especially Director J. Edgar Hoover, was striving to snuff out King’s influence, the FBI recorded and responded to other threats against him.
Black Mountain, 1964: A rare respite and crucial strategy session Hoover’s hatred of King led to extraordinary levels of FBI surveillance and attempted disruption of King’s efforts on the civil rights front, but the bureau’s leadership tried to hide its hand.
At a Dec. 23, 1963, meeting, top FBI officials decided to infiltrate King’s inner circle while taking a “discreet approach” to gathering info that could be used “at an opportune time in a counterintelligence move to discredit him,” FBI Assistant Director William Sullivan noted in recap of the meeting.
Subsequent directives to FBI field offices told them to shadow King whenever possible while doing nothing so intrusive as to expose and embarrass the bureau.
At the same time, King was preparing for a strategy meeting with 20 or so of his top aides at an Episcopal Church-owned estate in Black Mountain, where they would retreat to plot the future of the civil rights movement, and the FBI was already on his case.
In a Dec. 18 memo, the FBI’s New York City office reported its latest
findings from a confidential informant, including that King was
planning the retreat at “a place near Asheville.” According to the
informant, King said the meeting would include some recreation but
mostly be focused on “where do we go from here.”
The plan was to start the retreat on Jan. 6, 1964, a date that was later adjusted forward a couple of weeks, as the FBI noted in its continuing coverage of King’s planned summit.
The retreat was shifted to Jan. 20-22 after King and his top aides were invited to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House on Jan. 18. Fresh from that Oval Office experience, King and crew went to Black Mountain to decide their next steps, with the FBI watchful but increasingly wary of exposing its operations against the civil rights leader.
In advance of King’s visit, the FBI sent agents to scope out the Black Mountain estate, In-the-Oaks (which today is owned by Montreat College), according to a detailed memo in the FBI’s file. The agents reported to headquarters that... READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
King visited Western North Carolina at two key moments in the civil rights movement, for a strategic retreat at Black Mountain in 1964 and a groundbreaking sermon in Montreat in 1965.
During both appearances, the FBI was hot on King’s trail, according to declassified FBI files collected by Carolina Public Press from several archives and published below.
The records show that even as the bureau’s leadership, including and especially Director J. Edgar Hoover, was striving to snuff out King’s influence, the FBI recorded and responded to other threats against him.
Black Mountain, 1964: A rare respite and crucial strategy session Hoover’s hatred of King led to extraordinary levels of FBI surveillance and attempted disruption of King’s efforts on the civil rights front, but the bureau’s leadership tried to hide its hand.
At a Dec. 23, 1963, meeting, top FBI officials decided to infiltrate King’s inner circle while taking a “discreet approach” to gathering info that could be used “at an opportune time in a counterintelligence move to discredit him,” FBI Assistant Director William Sullivan noted in recap of the meeting.
Subsequent directives to FBI field offices told them to shadow King whenever possible while doing nothing so intrusive as to expose and embarrass the bureau.
At the same time, King was preparing for a strategy meeting with 20 or so of his top aides at an Episcopal Church-owned estate in Black Mountain, where they would retreat to plot the future of the civil rights movement, and the FBI was already on his case.
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| Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson, during one of their White House meetings. King met with Johnson just before his Black Mountain retreat in early 1964. Photo courtesy Johnson Presidential Library via Carolina Press |
The plan was to start the retreat on Jan. 6, 1964, a date that was later adjusted forward a couple of weeks, as the FBI noted in its continuing coverage of King’s planned summit.
The retreat was shifted to Jan. 20-22 after King and his top aides were invited to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House on Jan. 18. Fresh from that Oval Office experience, King and crew went to Black Mountain to decide their next steps, with the FBI watchful but increasingly wary of exposing its operations against the civil rights leader.
In advance of King’s visit, the FBI sent agents to scope out the Black Mountain estate, In-the-Oaks (which today is owned by Montreat College), according to a detailed memo in the FBI’s file. The agents reported to headquarters that... READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
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