The Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, or MLK Records Act, is proposed legislation that would release United States government records pertaining to the life and

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Versions of the law have been proposed on multiple occasions, and a complete version was brought to both houses of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

in 2005–2006.

History of the King files

In the years after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., reports emerged that the government was destroying sensitive documents related to the murder case. The FBI was criticized for appearing unusually reluctant to release records pertaining to King. In 1977, Judge John Lewis Smith ruled against

Bernard Lee John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from ...

and the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

(SCLC) in a lawsuit, and ordered that the King files be sealed for 50 years. In 1983, Senator Jesse Helms attempted to open the files because he believed that release of

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) records would incriminate King and prevent the establishment of

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is observed on the third Mond ...

as a federal holiday. He was denied by Judge Smith. The documents are thus not slated for release until 2027. Among these are an FBI file called "MURKIN" (for Murder-King, the official designation of the Martin Luther King assassination investigation) and information about how the FBI, through

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO (syllabic abbreviation derived from Counterintelligence, Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of Covert operation, covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation ( ...

, targeted King while he was alive.Brian Bender,
US cloaks case files involving civil rights
, ''Boston Globe, 18 January 2010; reproduce
at Common Dreams
.

Legislative history

Purpose of bill

Describing her reasons for drafting the bill, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) stated: "The truth of the MLK assassination has never been totally revealed. The FBI program COINTELPRO, the CIA project

Operation CHAOS Operation CHAOS or Operation MHCHAOS was a Central Intelligence Agency domestic espionage project targeting the American people from 1967 to 1974, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson and expanded under President Richard Nixon, whose mission ...

, and the Army Intelligence operation Lantern Spike all worked together to prevent the rise of a 'black messiah' and replace Martin Luther King Jr. with a 'clean Negro.'" Senator

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...

(D-Massachusetts), in a letter to

David Ferriero David Sean Ferriero (; born December 31, 1945) is an American librarian and library administrator, who served as the 10th Archivist of the United States. He previously served as the Director of the New York Public Library,Oder, Norman. "NYPL Reor ...

, Archivist of the United States, wrote: "I now believe with the clock ticking, the urgent legislative need is to provide you, as quickly as possible, with the resources you need to finish the job you have been doing before any papers are destroyed or lost forever". Some conspiracy theorists suggest that already released documents from the MURKIN file connect the 1968 King assassination to the

John F. Kennedy assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...

in 1963.

Introduction of bill

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by McKinney on November 19, 2002; it was sent the same day to the House Committee on Government Reform where it died in committee. McKinney reintroduced the bill on May 23, 2005; it was again sent the same day to the House Committee on Government Reform where it again died in committee. Kerry introduced the bill in the Senate on April 4, 2006, with Sen.

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

(D-New York) as a co-signer; it was read twice and referred the same day to the

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is the chief oversight committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland s ...

where it died in committee. It was proposed again by Kerry and Rep.

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

(D-Georgia) in 2010.Jerry Mitchell,
King's FBI files may be opened to public view
, ''USA Today'', 15 January 2010. Supporters of the bill have called for the release of records on other potentially racial violence. McKinney also proposed a

Tupac Amaru Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

Records Collection Act in 2005. H.R. 4210 (109th): Tupac Amaru Shakur Records Collection Act of 2005
introduced 2 November 2005.

Elements of bill

The text of the Act states that "all Government records concerning the life and assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. should carry a presumption of immediate disclosure". It calls for the creation of a "Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection" at the National Archive, and would charge the Archivist of the United States to maintain all disclosed records. The law would also create a Review Board to oversee the proper disclosure of records.

References

External links

Bill text and information

H.R. 5762 (107th): Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act of 2002
:
Records at govtrack

:* ttps://archive.today/20130415124618/http://www.opencongress.org/bill/109-h2554/show Records at Open Congress
S.2499 (109th): Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act of 2006
:
Records at Open Congress
:
Records at govtrac
:

Already public records

FBI vault

Internet Archive

Famous 100 Quotes

Mary Ferrell Foundation

Paul Wolf site {{Martin Luther King, state=expanded Martin Luther King Jr. Proposed legislation of the 107th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 108th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 109th United States Congress