Martin Luther King vs. The FBI – MLK/FBI (2020)

Directed by: Sam Pollard | 106 minutes | documentary | Starring: Martin Luther King, J. Edgar Hoover, David Garrow, Clarence B. Jones, Charles Knox, Donna Murch, Marc Perrusquia, Andrew Young, James Comey

Anyone who is a public figure today – whether that be politicians, royals, artists, movie heroes, sports icons or people no one really knows exactly why – knows that his or her private life is under a magnifying glass. Thanks to social media, they can partly influence their own public image. But even famous people with the most immaculate image, the ideal son-in-law or ‘girl next door’ types, will have less beautiful sides that they carefully want to keep out of the limelight. The scandal surrounding ‘The Voice of Holland’ is a recent example of this. Influential American human rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. had a dark side. King, a vicar, by the way, was married but had numerous affairs. The man many consider an absolute hero was only human. In the fascinating documentary ‘Martin Luther King vs. The FBI’ (2020) directed by Sam Pollard reveals how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), led by J. Edgar Hoover, used King’s systematic infidelity to pressure him. The important question that arises – to what extent does that dark side that King had as a private person influence his greatness as a political leader and human rights activist? – unfortunately unanswered, but the insight we get into the workings of the FBI and the effect that smear campaign had on King are extremely interesting to watch.

Martin Luther King Jr., an Atlanta pastor, became the leader of the African-American civil rights movement in 1955 after the Montgomery Bus-Boycott following the arrest of Rosa Parks. In the years that followed, he turned out to be a true figurehead of peaceful protest. At the time of the March on Washington in August 1963, where he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech and attracted some 200,000 to 300,000 people, the white establishment saw King as a great danger. Two days after the rally, FBI head William C. Sullivan wrote: “We must now label him as the most dangerous ‘nigger’ in the future of this nation.” The FBI initially set its sights on King’s close relationship with Stanley Levison, a white Jewish lawyer who was historically linked to communist groups and one of King’s regular advisers. To the FBI, the connection between Levison and King was a sign that the “red danger” was deeply ingrained in the civil rights movement. In a TV interview with Dan Rather, MLK sharply refutes that accusation when he states that it is “one of the wonders of the twentieth century that so few African Americans are involved in communism given their years of desperation.” and oppression’. President John F. Kennedy himself had to step in to whisper to King to distance himself from Levison. MLK, however, did not care and lied to the Kennedys about it. King’s good relationship with them was damaged as a result and it was Robert Kennedy who gave the FBI permission in 1963 to wiretap King.

By accident, the FBI discovered during that eavesdropping that MLK didn’t care much about marital fidelity. As the trail of communist relations came to a dead end, Hoover and his associates decided to shift their focus to King’s extramarital affairs. By exposing this secret side of King, they hoped to weaken, humiliate and eventually break him. Hotel rooms were fitted with bugs, and informants such as famed activist photographer Ernest C. Withers and Jim Harrison, who worked at the Kings Southern Christian Leadership Conference office in Atlanta, were deployed. Then things really get dirty: the FBI decides to send footage from one of those hotel rooms to King’s wife Coretta, accompanied by a note implying that MLK had better kill himself to prevent his infidelity from coming out. The curious thing is that this whole operation never made it to the press. King tries to save the furniture in a personal conversation with Hoover, but lives daily with the fear of being exposed (something Pollard captures flawlessly in the archive footage he uses to support his story). But he is always combative. In fact, he breaks his agreement with President Lyndon B. Johnson not to speak out about the futility of the Vietnam War, which at one point caused even the most liberal press to attack him.

Pollard skilfully uses archival footage, including testimonials from historians, journalists and eyewitnesses who interpret the events. Where does that fear of the black man, who cannot control his sexuality, come from, for example, and how King’s infidelity fits exactly into that profile. The exact contents of the tapes, which have been preserved, will not be released until 2027. As a viewer, you cannot deny that you are curious about what is being said (because it is only audio) and whether you can deduce anything from it. Historian Beverly Gage also emphasizes that it is very humane to receive confirmation that someone who has been more or less canonized also has its dark sides. Does that affect the way we see King, as a political leader and as a person? That question is only addressed at the very end, when the voices we heard throughout the film finally get a face. But we do not get a satisfactory answer. That is a missed opportunity, because that would have given this film that extra insight that we are looking for. Those who are well versed in the subject will not get much news in ‘Martin Luther King vs. the FBI’. Or it must be that glimpse into how the FBI operated and, above all, why they did it and the effect their witch hunts had on their target. Because it’s that look in King’s eyes, who fears for his life every day at the hands of the FBI, that remains on our minds. It’s a wonder he didn’t fall for it. Seen in that light, it’s no surprise that King’s murder is still fodder for conspiracy theorists and that events surrounding BlackLivesMatter seem more urgent than ever nearly 55 years later.