Martin Luther King, Jr. Records Collection Act (HR 2554)

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 remains an unsolved case. The Final Report of a 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that their was a probably conspiracy behind Dr. King's assassination. Further, a civil suit brought by the King family resulted in a ruling that concluded that there was a conspiracy reaching to the highest levels of government and military intelligence agencies.

Despite these conclusions, thousands of pages relating to the life and assassination of Dr. King remain classified under a Congressional rule until 2038. Attempts to access these records under the Freedom of Information Act have yielded mixed results.

Modeled after the JFK Records Act, the largest declassification effort in American history, which has resulted in the release of over 6 million pages of classified documents, the Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act will promote a full disclosure of records. A Martin Luther King Records Collection at the National Archives will be set up. A full release of records will occur within five years, during which time an Independent Review Board with 5 members from the African-American community appointed by the President, guided by an Advisory Board made up of leaders from the Civil Rights community and members of the King family will review records for redaction or postponement.

We know that the FBI, the CIA, and Military Intelligence were actively involved in surveillance and disruption of the activities of civil rights advocates in the 1960s and beyond. In light of recent revelations regarding renewed government surveillance, this bill will not only shed light on the circumstances of Dr. King's assassination, it will also supplement the history of secret government surveillance operations such as COINTELPRO, providing greater insight into current surveillance tactics.

Dr. King was the most renowned proponent of non-violent political action for justice. Four decades after his death, it is time to make the full record of the circumstances surrounding his life and assassination available to the public.