Judge weighs government’s request to unseal records of FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.

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June 7, 2025

By Michael Kunzelman, Afro

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. displays pictures of three civil rights workers, who were slain in Mississippi the summer before, from left Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, at a news conference Dec. 4, 1964, in New York, where he commended the FBI for its arrests in Mississippi in connection with the slayings. (AP Photo/JL, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is weighing a request from the Trump administration to unseal records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. — files that the civil rights leader’s relatives want to keep under wraps in the national archives.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., said during a hearing on June 4 that he wants to see an inventory of the records before deciding whether the government can review them for possible release to the public.

“This is delicate stuff,” Leon said. “We’re going to go slowly. Little steps.”

Justice Department attorneys have asked Leon to end a sealing order for the records nearly two years ahead of its expiration date. A department attorney said the administration is only interested in releasing files related to King’s assassination.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King led, is opposed to unsealing any of the records for privacy reasons. The organization’s lawyers said King’s relatives also want to keep the files under seal.

Learn more about The FBI’s secret surveillance of Dr. King.

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