The Trump administration has declassified and released over 230,000 pages of records related to the 1968 assassination of American civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., despite objections from members of the King family.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced the release on Monday, stating that the move was part of an effort to ensure full transparency on “a pivotal and tragic event in our nation’s history.”
“The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination,” Gabbard said in a statement, noting that the documents had been published with “minimal redactions for privacy reasons.”
The release follows an executive order signed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, which directed the declassification of records related to the 1960s assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. King.
While the National Archives had already released files related to JFK’s 1963 assassination and RFK’s 1968 murder earlier this year, Monday’s disclosure marks the largest batch of documents made public regarding the killing of Dr. King in Memphis, Tennessee.
James Earl Ray was convicted of assassinating King and died in prison in 1998, but questions have long persisted about whether he acted alone or was part of a broader conspiracy — questions that the King family has echoed for decades.
In a joint statement, Dr. King’s children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, expressed cautious support for the release but voiced concerns about potential misuse of the documents.
“We support transparency and historical accountability,” they said, “but we are deeply aware of how these records, particularly those originating from FBI surveillance, could be used to attack our father’s legacy.”
They condemned the U.S. government’s decades-long surveillance and disinformation campaign against King, led by former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, calling it “invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing.”
“These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth,” the family added. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”
Historians and civil rights advocates have long sought the full disclosure of government documents related to Dr. King’s death, arguing that public access to the files is essential to understanding the broader context of the civil rights movement and the federal government’s controversial tactics during that era.
The newly declassified documents are now available through the National Archives.
