The letter, written in 1964 by an FBI deputy posing as a disillusioned civil rights activist, was an attempt by J Edgar Hoover to unsettle the civil rights leader just days before he received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
A heavily censored version of the ‘suicide letter’ has been published before, but a Yale University historian recently unearthed an unredacted copy.
Beverly Gage
Beverly Gage was researching a book about Hoover in the National Archive when she accidentally came across the letter.
‘I was surprised to find a full, uncensored version of the letter tucked away in a reprocessed set of his official and confidential files at the National Archives,’ she told the New York Times.
Former FBI director Hoover feared King so much that he had classified him as 'the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country'.
With his agents desperately searching for something they could use to destroy King, the only thing they could find was about his extramarital affairs.
When Hoover learned that King would be the recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, he stepped up his attack, instructing his agents to send King the anonymous note in which they threatened to divulge details about his affairs if he didn't take his own life.
