Martin Luther King Jr.

===FBI surveillance and wiretapping===
[[File:FBI PPC 1.pdf|thumb|Memo describing FBI attempts to disrupt the Poor People's Campaign with fraudulent claims about King{{mdashb}}part of the [[COINTELPRO]] campaign against the anti-war and civil rights movements]]

FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] personally ordered surveillance of King, with the intent to undermine his power as a civil rights leader.<ref name="MED08-2">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/april41968martin00dyso|title=April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and how it changed America|last=Dyson|first=Michael Eric|publisher=Basic Civitas Books|year=2008|isbn=978-0-465-00212-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/april41968martin00dyso/page/58 58–59]|chapter=Facing Death|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/april41968martin00dyso|url-access=registration}}
</ref><ref name="Honey2007ch4">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/goingdownjericho00hone|title=Going down Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign|last=Honey|first=Michael K.|publisher=Norton|year=2007|isbn=978-0-393-04339-6|edition=1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/goingdownjericho00hone/page/92 92–93]|chapter=Standing at the Crossroads|quote=Hoover developed around-the-clock surveillance campaign aimed at destroying King.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/goingdownjericho00hone|url-access=registration}}</ref> The [[Church Committee]], a 1975 investigation by the [[U.S. Congress]], found that "From December 1963 until his death in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was the target of an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to 'neutralize' him as an effective civil rights leader."<ref name=Church />

In the fall of 1963, the FBI received authorization from Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]] to proceed with wiretapping of King's phone lines, purportedly due to his association with [[Stanley Levison]].<ref name="the atlantic">{{cite news | title= The FBI and Martin Luther King | last= Garrow | first =David J.| author-link =David Garrow |date=July–August 2002|work=The Atlantic Monthly |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200207/garrow}}</ref> The Bureau informed President [[John F. Kennedy]]. He and his brother unsuccessfully tried to persuade King to dissociate himself from Levison, a New York lawyer who had been involved with Communist Party USA.<ref name=right />{{sfn|Kotz|2005}} Although Robert Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King's telephone lines "on a trial basis, for a month or so",{{sfn|Herst|2007|p=372}} Hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy.{{sfn|Herst|2007|pp=372–74}}

The Bureau placed wiretaps on the home and office phone lines of both Levison and King, and bugged King's rooms in hotels as he traveled across the country.<ref name=right>{{cite news|title=JFK and RFK Were Right to Wiretap MLK |last=Ryskind |first=Allan H. |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200602/ai_n17173432/pg_2 |access-date=August 27, 2008 |work=Human Events |date=February 27, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004205959/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200602/ai_n17173432/pg_2 |archive-date=October 4, 2008 }}</ref><ref name=track>{{cite news |publisher= CNN |title= FBI tracked King's every move |date=April 7, 2008 |first=Jen |last=Christensen |access-date=June 14, 2008 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/31/mlk.fbi.conspiracy/index.html}}</ref> In 1967, Hoover listed the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|SCLC]] as a black nationalist hate group, with the instructions: "No opportunity should be missed to exploit through counterintelligence techniques the organizational and personal conflicts of the leaderships of the groups&nbsp;... to insure {{sic}} the targeted group is disrupted, ridiculed, or discredited."<ref name=Honey2007ch4 /><ref>{{cite book |title=War at Home: Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It |last=Glick |first=Brian |year=1989 |publisher=South End Press |isbn=978-0-89608-349-3 |page=77 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M4uvwy_C3egC&pg=PA77}}</ref>