The Trump administration has declassified and released over 230,000 pages of documents relating to the 1968 assassination of American civil rights icon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This unprecedented move aims to shed new light on one of the most pivotal and controversial events in U.S. history.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, in a statement on Monday, announced the release, noting that the documents come with “minimal redactions for privacy reasons.” She emphasized the government’s commitment to full transparency, saying: “The American people have waited nearly sixty years to understand the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination. We are leaving no stone unturned.”
The files are being made public under an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump, which mandated the declassification of documents related to the high-profile 1960s assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. King.
Earlier in 2025, the National Archives had already released documents on President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 and the June 1968 killing of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Dr. King was shot and killed in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Although James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998, members of the King family have long expressed doubts about Ray’s guilt, suggesting the possibility of a broader conspiracy.
Reacting to the release, King’s surviving children — Martin Luther King III and Dr. Bernice King — issued a joint statement supporting transparency but voicing serious concerns. They warned the documents might be weaponized to tarnish their father’s legacy.
“We support transparency and historical accountability,” they said. “However, we are also mindful of how these records, if misused, could deepen wounds. Our father endured an invasive and deeply disturbing surveillance and disinformation campaign orchestrated by then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.”
They described the FBI’s efforts as an intentional attempt to “discredit, dismantle, and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,” calling the actions “not just invasions of privacy but direct assaults on truth.”
“We urge those engaging with these files to approach them with empathy, respect, and awareness of our ongoing grief,” the statement concluded.
The document release is expected to reignite public and scholarly debates about not just King’s assassination but also the government’s controversial intelligence practices during the civil rights era. It may also fuel further scrutiny of similar events — including the JFK and RFK assassinations — long steeped in public suspicion and conspiracy theories.
James Earl Ray’s conviction has never fully satisfied historians, and the latest disclosures could either reinforce or challenge the official narrative.
With these files now accessible, historians, journalists, and the general public may finally get a clearer picture of the federal government’s role and knowledge surrounding one of the darkest chapters in American history.
