Evil, degenerate, abnormal -- it is difficult to believe that such words would ever be used to describe and discredit the man who had a dream: Martin Luther King Jr.
The uncensored letter that threatened the civil rights leader and even taunted him to commit suicide was penned and delivered to King. The most shocking part was who the letter originated from: the F.B.I.
It was well known in history that J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the F.B.I., was attempting to expose King as a communist in hopes of discrediting him in the public eye and putting a halt to the civil rights movement.
Apparently, the unnamed racist, scathing letter was meant as a smear campaign orchestrated by the bureau in order to put King out of favor.
King immediately suspected that the F.B.I was behind the letter and told only his closest confidants that someone was telling him to kill himself.
His suspicion was confirmed only a decade later by the Senate's Church Committee on intelligence overreach.
Until now, only parts of the letter were released to the public, but for the first time since King first read it 50 years ago, the letter has been published in its entirety by the New York Times.
Aside from trying to urge King to commit suicide, the letter also threatened to expose his extra-martial affairs, which the F.B.I. found out about by wiretapping his phone. It also called him evil several times and gave him a deadline of 34 days to kill himself before he was exposed.
As shocking as the letter is, it is a prudent reminder about the lengths governments are willing to take to invade citizens' private lives -- a debate that is still very much controversial today.
According to the original report, a copy of the request to wiretap King remains on the desk of the current F.B.I director, as a reminder to him that even the bureau can do wrong by the people they are supposed to help protect.
