The family of Martin Luther King Jr. has provided a response to President Donald Trump's decision to release secret FBI files regarding the civil rights icon's assassination nearly 60 years ago.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order to release files related to King's death, former President John F. Kennedy, and his brother Robert F. Kennedy.
“For us, our father's assassination is a very personal family loss that we have endured over the past 56 years. We hope that as a family we will be offered the opportunity to review the file before it is made public. .” the family said.
“All will be revealed,” Trump said while signing executive orders in the Oval Office.
The order calls the release of the files a “long period of time” and requires the Justice Department and the Director of National Intelligence to quickly prepare for release.
King was standing on the second floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the evening of April 4, 1968, when he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray.
King's family continues to work towards a comprehensive investigation into the assassination, emphasizing the importance of uncovering the truth while focusing on preserving the icon's legacy. Fox Atlanta reported.
The deadly shooting came after the FBI worked to undermine the minister's anti-racism advocacy.
An anonymous letter from the agency to King was believed to be an attempt to have the civil rights leader commit suicide.
An analysis from the FBI 23 days before the assassination claimed that there were vast numbers of communists in the king's inner circle.
The analysis said two of King's former aides were members of the Communist Party and eight others had communist affiliations.
The documents claim that the party attempted to spread its goals throughout the United States by forming a black labor coalition, and that King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were “mandated” for a communist mission. insisted.
Black ministers attended a ministerial training workshop hosted by King in February 1968 and expressed “backstage disgust. [sic] The analysis said.
“Throughout the following years, and to this date,” the FBI analysis says, “King continued to covertly carry on his sexual deviance while suppressing the public's view of him as a moral leader of religious beliefs.”
King was arrested several times throughout his career, and former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover considered him a radical.
President Kennedy's grandson reacted to news of executive order and claimed Trump was doing it for political reasons
“Declassification is using JFK as a political prop. “There's nothing heroic about it.”
