In 1964, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent Martin Luther King Jr. an anonymous package containing a threatening letter and secret audio recordings of his alleged extramarital affairs. The package was intended to paint King as a fraud—amoral and self-serving—and to blackmail him into committing suicide.
This act was part of a broader campaign later tied to the FBI’s COINTELPRO initiative, a series of covert and illegal operations conducted from 1956 to 1971, aimed at infiltrating and discrediting Americans whom the agency considered subversive.
Regardless of how you feel about King's impact—his philosophical views or alleged ties to the Communist Party—it is an undeniably troubling episode in American history, illustrating the capability and willingness of government agencies to abuse their authority to stifle dissent and silence rising social movements.
