J. Edgar Hoover met with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. An upcoming book by Lerone A. Martin shares details on how this encounter wentDr. Lerone A. Martin is Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University who in 2018 shared his groundbreaking discovery that Black Christian evangelist Elder Michaux colluded with the FBI to discredit Martin Luther King Jr.’s work.
Hoover was a trained lawyer, yet his first line of defense was not the U.S. Constitution, instead, the white Christian nationalist grounded his actions in the Old Testament. Moses followed God’s command to appoint spies to gather intel on the enemies who were occupying the promised land and preventing God’s chosen people from inheriting their promise. Hoover viewed his FBI as performing the same service.
Hoover snapped back, telling reporters that King had ties to godless communists, had refused to meet with him, and even instructed Black Southerners not to cooperate with the FBI. King was no minister or righteous spokesman, Hoover concluded, he was actually “the most notorious liar in the United States,” and “one of the lowest characters in the country.”
Hoover, however, would hear none of King’s Christian testimony. The director abruptly interrupted the preacher’s confession of faith, launching into a 55-minute monologue from behind his elevated gleaming mahogany desk. Hoover was known to burst into such long soliloquies from behind his perch when he did not particularly trust an office visitor. The director became garrulous when King spoke of his faith.
Looking forward to this book. I always recommend JamesEllroy's 'Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy' portrayal of the sixties, which saw MLK's assasination bookended by same for JFK and RFK. Unlikely these were isolated events.