The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t return to Hoover’s illegal tactics
As civil rights activists, we see current political landscape as threat to all.
“There is only one thing left for you to do . ... You know what it is.”
William Sullivan, an FBI agent working for the infamous J. Edgar Hoover, wrote these words in a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. An overt threat, it was the kind of statement that would be chilling from a criminal, but is more so because this threat is from the nation’s national law enforcement agency. King’s “offense” stemmed from his leadership of the civil rights movement.
Hoover’s blind hate of King led him to ratchet up his unconstitutional surveillance, convincing then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to let him tap King’s phone. He had no evidence that King may have been involved in any criminal activity. Far from it; King often was the one being threatened with violence. And, increasingly, many of the unconstitutional threats were directly from the FBI.
The wiretaps represent part of a long, sordid history in United States law enforcement’s criminalization of Black America. We have since come a long way, and those unconstitutional attempts to undermine King’s patriotic work to advance democracy remain a stain on the FBI.
But recent comments from Robert F. Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., attempting to justify unjustifiable acts of his father represent a broader political movement to dismantle the legacies of civil rights giants to return this country to an era inconsistent with constitutional promises such as the right to privacy and equal protection under the law.
As we approach this election cycle, we must understand that the choice we are faced with in November is not a choice between individual candidates or even political parties; it is a choice between fascism and democracy.
From the denial of slavery as the cause for the Civil War to platforms based on the erasure of Black history in our schools to this disturbing argument for unconstitutional wiretaps in the absence of any wrongdoing — the current political landscape presents a direct threat to all Americans, particularly Black life and progress.
Today, states and localities are passing laws to make it harder for anti-police violence activists to protest peacefully. To make matters worse, 35 states have signed into law or proposed legislation banning or restricting the teaching of a broadly defined “critical race theory,” which is inclusive of factual contributions by Black people, as well as public policy harms targeting Blacks, such as slavery, segregation, red lining, etc., all in an attempt to rewrite history.
When the nonviolent struggle for rights and dignity, and the accurate teaching of those struggles, become a crime, our very democracy pays the price.
Politicians intentionally undermine the legitimacy of the FBI, without evidence, to undercut its efforts to hold the politically powerful, like Donald Trump, accountable where there is evidence of federal crimes. We can’t have blind trust in government, but nor can we allow any suggestion that viewpoints against Black lives or in support of Trumpism should undermine it.
Hoover was an out-of-control, power-hungry director who trampled civil liberties and was feared and distrusted for his lurid tactics and avoidance of oversight and accountability. His FBI was a rogue agency that exceeded its mandates and broke the law, and it almost was transformed into Hoover’s secret security service.
So many leaders in the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, the women’s rights movement and the American Indian Movement — people such as Thurgood Marshall, Ella Baker, Rosa Parks and Bayard Rustin, to name a few — faced unconstitutional surveillance for seeking human rights. The 1964 letter from Sullivan, delivered to King to scare him into silence, was not done in the name of public safety. It was done in the name of white supremacy — the kind that didn’t care for the Constitution or rule of law or the humanity of all residents of this great nation, one that cherishes free speech, the right to protest peacefully and petition the government to do its job and hold it accountable when it does not.
We know that this democracy is far from perfect, but its complete demise means a complete demise of an America that King, and so many others like him, worked to create. King’s right to privacy should not be violated any more than our rights today.
Not only should we reject the perilous legal precedent that releasing the tapes would set, we must reject any effort to perpetuate fascist ideals at the highest levels of government. Democracy may be broken, but we must be afforded the opportunity to fix it while acknowledging the history of Black struggles and celebrating the work of Black activists.