A Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Martin Luther King, Jr. recently made a dive into recently-released FBI surveillance summaries, revealing what could be a “painful historical reckoning” for the legendary civil rights leader.
From Daily Caller:
David Garrow, who won a Pulitzer for his 1987 King biography “Bearing the Cross,” detailed his shocking revelations in a article for the British magazine “Standpoint,” released Thursday.
While FBI surveillance tapes on King, initiated by former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, are being held in a U.S. National Archives vault until 2027, Garrow used “hundreds of never-before-seen FBI reports and surveillance summaries concerning King” that “have silently slipped into public view on the Archives’ lightly-annotated and difficult-to-explore web site” to uncover the latest revelations about the slain civil rights icon.
King’s sexual promiscuity, much of which is laid out in more detail in Garrow’s lengthy and detailed report, has been known about for years. One allegation unearthed by the historian rises to a new level, however, revealing the alleged rape of a woman by a pastor friend of King, during which the civil rights leader “looked on, laughed and offered advice.” The alleged incident took place January 1964 at Washington, D.C.’s historic Willard Hotel, where King and a group of fellow ministers were scheduled to stay for three nights. Knowing this, FBI agents had bugged his room.
A “sex orgy” the next day featured “acts of degeneracy and depravity” and “excessive consumption of alcohol” involving King, several Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) officers, “and others bearing the title of ‘reverend,’” the tape summaries revealed. While “many of those present engaged in sexual acts, natural as well as unnatural,” a woman who “shied away” was allegedly told by King that participating would “help your soul.”
