Nov. 19, 1964 - Dr. Martin Luther King, responding bitterly to a personal attack by J. Edgar Hoover, accused the FBI chief today of mysteriously and irresponsibly maligning his integrity.
He said that under Hoover, the FBI is “following the path of appeasement” in the South.
As King answered Hoover’s charge yesterday that he was “the most notorious liar in the country” because of statements made about racial trouble in Albany, Ga., other civil rights leaders throughout the country jumped to his defense.
In a telegraphed protest to Hoover, King pointed out that he had “sincerely questioned” the FBI’s effectiveness in racial cases, “particularly where bombings and brutality against Negroes are at issue.” But he denied that he had attributed lack of action in Southern race cases “merely to the presence of Southerners in the FBI.”
“This is part of the broader question of federal involvement in the protection of Negroes in the South and the seeming inability to gain convictions in even the most heinous crimes perpetrated against civil rights workers,” he said.
King accused the FBI of “following the path of appeasement of political powers in the South.” If this continues, he said, “the reign of terror in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia will increase rather than subside.”
The Negro leader denied that he had refused to see Hoover and said he had “sought in vain for any record of such a request” from the FBI head. He said he would be “happy to discuss” the matter with Hoover in the near future.
“I have always made myself available to all FBI agents of the Atlanta office and encouraged our staff and affiliates to cooperate with them, in spite of the fact that many of our people have suspicions and distrust of the FBI as a result of the slow pace of justice in the South,” King said.
He said he was “appalled and surprised” at Hoover’s blast. “What motivated such an irresponsible accusation is a mystery to me,” he said.
King sent the telegram from the Bahamas, where he was reportedly drafting his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
In a separate statement released by his Atlanta office, King said Hoover must have been “under extreme pressure” when he made his accusation.
“He has apparently faltered under the awesome burdens, complexities, and responsibilities of his office,” the clergyman said. “I cannot engage in a public debate with him. I have nothing but sympathy for this man who has served his country so well.”
Elsewhere, Bayard Rustin, leader of last year’s march on Washington, charged that Hoover is a “pygmy both intellectually and morally compared with Dr. King.”
Presidential press secretary George Reedy said President Johnson had no comment on Hoover’s charge against King. He said he did not know whether the President had been in touch with the FBI chief in the last 24 hours.
Hoover also was silent. There would be no reaction to King’s statements, a spokesman said. He refused even to confirm for the record that King’s telegram had been received.
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