Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
(The FBIs extensive surveillance recordings of King will be released in 2027.)
Help me understand the context within which this extensive FBI surveillance took place.
For many Americans, white Americans in particular, that was frightening.
Thats why he was looked at by the FBI as a threat.
Hes basically a nonviolent agitator.
Hes got no guns.
Theyre doing sit-ins, marching, picketing.
But he was saying, We want a different America.
And people didnt want to see that happen.
King had to be stopped.
But LBJ didnt give a fuck about his sex life excuse my language!
You hear Johnson on the audio tapes with Hoover saying, King is a danger.
King is a danger.
King didnt want to become a leader of the movement.
He was sort of thrown into it with the Montgomery bus boycott.
But hes dealing with those that are jealous of him.
He knows hes being monitored 24/7 by the FBI.
And even some Black people were saying, Maybe youre moving too quickly!
We pulled the stuff out that we thought could help us with the narrative.
Your film doesnt seem to lend much credence to the report.
What do you make of the veracity of those documents?The FBI what was their goal?
To destroy Dr. Kings reputation by any lengths they could.
Now, I dont know exactly what they heard on those tapes.
Whatever they heard, they shaped into their own perspective.
They really got King by the testicles.
We could have ratcheted it up.
But we decided, no, lets be a little more even-handed in our presentation.
Are we going to sully his legacy?
That was the question we kept asking ourselves when we approached that particular sequence.
You interview former FBI director James Comey in the film.
He gives this startling admission: that the campaign against MLK represented the darkest part of the bureaus history.
How did you get Comey?
We put together a sizzle reel to get funding to do the actual film.
Ben and I got on the phone with Comey about five weeks later.
It was about 20, 25 minutes.
Why?I see Comey as sort of a naive Boy Scout.
Your brain says, If Trump says theyre horrible, then uh-oh, maybe we need to reappraise them.
Maybe theyre not so bad.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.Exactly.
He corroborated that this letter was basically telling King to kill himself, which is absolutely astonishing.
Look at the show of force that was brought out against them.
Look at the lack of force [earlier this month] in Washington, D.C. You see the difference.
You see the thinking of America.
Black people are considered a threat.
People of color are considered a threat.
White people who physically violently invade the Capitol, the police dont see them as a threat.
I watched those images and was disgusted.
In some ways, this kind of intensity and craziness is part and parcel of who America is.
Its been there for a long time and anybody who doesnt understand that doesnt understand the history of America.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
