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Weeks before the release of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma opens in theaters, a hate-filled letter written by the FBI to the civil rights leader has been made public. In 1964, MLK Jr. received a single paged anonymous letter that threatened to reveal King’s true character to persuade him to commit suicide. In the letter’s passages, King is called “a complete fraud and a great liability,” an “evil, abnormal beast,” and threatened to expose his marital infidelities. Years later it was revealed that the letter was written by FBI agent William Sullivan.
The original full text of the letter, previously released in edited form, was made public this wee Wednesday- almost 50 years after the anonymous letter was opened by King’s wife Coretta Scott King, just days before he was set to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The disturbing letter, written under the guise of a civil rights supporter with a myriad of misspellings, gave King a deadline of 34 days before he would be exposed to the public as a “abnormal moral imbecile.”
“King, look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes,” it reads. “There is only one thing left for you to do,” the writer warns in the final paragraph. “You know what it is.”
Furthermore the letter specifically names a lover, which has since been blacked out, and additionally threatens of the existence of audio tapes of his infidelity. King’s call for equal rights for all Americans became a “national security measure,” according to the first Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. The civil rights leaders and his supporters often were at odds with the FBI for their non-violent protests and marches.
The Selma to Montgomery marches in particular troubled the White House. The upcoming MLK biopic directed by Ava Duvernay and starring David Oyelowo recalls the Selma marches that led to the Civil Rights voting act by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, a highlight of the American Civil Rights Movement. The release of the FBI letter is a significant reminder the importance of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and the work that continues each day across America.
Selma opens in limited release on December 25 with the full release coming on January 9. The wide release is also just a few days before MLK Day, which falls on January 19, 2015.
Watch the trailer below: