The assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is getting a fresh look after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at declassifying the remaining federal records relating to his 1968 murder.
The order, among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term, will also look at the assassinations of former president John F. Kennedy in 1963 and former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
Each of the three assassinations have fueled conspiracy theories for decades.
“Everything will be revealed,” Trump said.
“Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,” Trump said in the order. “It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
In a joint statement, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, CEO of the King Estate, said they learned about the executive order on Thursday and were awaiting further information before elaborating on their thoughts.
“For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years,” the statement read. “We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.”
King, the heralded civil rights leader, was shot and killed on the evening of April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
King’s killing capped off a decade of political and civil rights-related assassinations that saw both Kennedy brothers, as well as NAACP leader, Medgar Evers gunned down.
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
James Earl Ray, a petty crook who was discharged from the U.S. Army for ineptitude, was charged and convicted of King’s murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison.
But similar to at least the assassination of John F. Kennedy, King’s death and Ray’s involvement has always been shrouded in conspiracy.
A 1978 congressional probe concluded that Ray was the likely shooter, though he probably was part of a small-scale conspiracy involving two St. Louis racists.
In 1993, Loyd Jowers a small-time café owner told a nationwide TV audience that a Memphis produce dealer with alleged mob ties had paid him $100,000 to hire a hit man to kill King.
The King family, who had long believed that his death was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy, trusted Jowers’ assertion that the assassin was a former Memphis police officer known for his sharpshooting skills.
In 1997, while calling for a new trial for Ray, Dexter Scott King visited the frail and dying man at a prison hospital.
“I just want to ask you, for the record,” King said to Ray. “Did you kill my father?”
Ray responded, “No, I didn’t.”
“As awkward as this may seem,” King said. “I want you to know I believe you and my family believes you. We are going to do all we can to make sure justice prevails. I believe that in some way we will make our way out of nowhere.”
Ray died the following year, before he could be retried.
“America will never have the benefit of Mr. Ray’s trial, which would have produced new revelations about the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as establish the facts concerning Mr. Ray’s innocence,” said Coretta Scott King at the time. “It is regrettable that Mr. Ray was denied his day in court, but the American people have a right to the truth about this tragedy, and we intend to do everything we can to bring it to light.”
Former U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights era colleague of King’s said: “It is regrettable that the full truth did not come to light during his lifetime. Until the truth is known, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King will remain an incomplete chapter in American history.”
Credit: National Archives
Credit: National Archives
In 1998 the Justice Department opened a limited probe into Jowers’ allegations and into assertions by a former FBI agent that he found papers in Ray’s abandoned car that would indicate a conspiracy.
In December 1999, after a month of testimony, a civil trial jury in Memphis unanimously concluded that Jowers had conspired with elements of the Memphis Police Department, the federal government and organized crime to kill King.
Jonathan Eig, who won a 2024 Pulitzer Prize for his biography, “King: A Life,” said he has probably read about 90% of the available government files related to King, including a tranche of files released in 2017.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
“We might get a little more about confidential informants, but I don’t expect giant revelations,” Eig said. “But all it takes is one little sentence.”
Historian David Garrow, who won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his “Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” said he is most curious about whether the files will include information on paid confidential informants like James A. Harrison and Ernest Withers.
“I think Trump has an instinct, which got shut down in Trump 1.0, that everything should be let fly. It is an animus toward these intelligence agencies, which he believes have behaved badly toward him,” said Garrow, who has also written books about Barack Obama and Roe v. Wade. “I am not a Trump fan, but it is easy for me to understand how he feels the way he does about the intelligence community.”
Both Garrow and Eig are more focused on 2027, when the complete F.B.I. recordings and transcripts on King are scheduled to be released.
According to the order, within the next 15 days, the director of National Intelligence, Attorney General, the assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and the counsel to the President, will present a plan to Trump on the release of the records.
“That’s a big one,” Trump said from the Oval Office as he signed the order. “Lot of people are waiting for this a long, for years, for decades.”
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