MLK/FBI is a documentary film which premiered in 2020. The topic is the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and the FBI. Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Sam Pollard
** Writers: Benjamin Hedin and Laura Tomaselli
** Based on the book The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.: From 'Solo' to Memphis by David Garrow (1981)
** Run time: 104 minutes
Several people are interviewed in the film. People who are interviewed in a documentary film are often referred to as “talking heads.” But in this film, there are no talking heads.
We cannot see the people who are interviewed. We can hear them when they are talking, but we do not see them.
A name appears on the screen when a person is speaking, but we do not see the person who is speaking. We have audio but no video. While the person is speaking, archive footage illustrates what the speaker is talking about.
Here are the names of the participants listed in alphabetical order:
** James Comey - FBI
** Beverly Gage – Yale University
** David Garrow – author
** Clarence B. Jones - lawyer
** Charles Knox – FBI
** Donna Murch – Rutgers University
** Marc Perrusquia - journalist
** Andrew Young – SCLC
When we get to the end of the film, just before the credits begin, six of the eight persons listed above are seen. Now we can see the faces. But two of the eight persons are never seen: Marc Perrusquia and James Comey.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was a civil rights leader for 13 years: 1955-1968. From the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 until the moment when he was killed in Memphis in 1968.
During this time, the FBI had him under observation. They watched him and the people around him. They wanted to know what he did and what he said. He was regarded as a national threat.
They were hoping they could catch him breaking the law, but this never really happened. MLK was arrested a couple of times for marching in a demonstration. But this was not a serious violation of the law. The FBI wanted him to commit a serious crime (like treason) but it never happened.
Since there was no serious violation of the law, they decided to try another approach. They began collecting dirt on him. They wanted to tarnish his reputation. They wanted to prove that he was an immoral person.
Evidence was gathered and released to some people around him and to some editors of the media. But for some reason, MLK’s reputation as a civil rights leader remained intact.
For the FBI, observing and watching dissidents was not enough. In 1956, they established a special project called the Counter Intelligence Program, abbreviated as COINTELPRO.
The purpose of this project was to infiltrate, disrupt and ultimately destroy any group or organization which was regarded as a national threat, including the following:
** The civil rights movement
** The anti-war movement
** The Communist Party
** The Socialist Workers Party
** The Black Panther Party
** The American Indian Movement
** The New Left
This project was only partially successful. The organizations targeted by the FBI were not destroyed, but they were weakened and rendered less effective than they could have been, if they had been allowed to operate without government harassment.
While MLK was watching American society, he began to think that there was a connection between domestic and foreign policy. He began to connect the civil rights movement in the US with the US war in Vietnam.
In 1965, he spoke about Vietnam for the first time. He criticized the US role in Vietnam. The response was immediate. He was told to back off. Stick to domestic affairs! Focus on civil rights in the US! Do not talk about foreign policy!
MLK obeyed. He was silent for 18 months. But in 1967, he could no longer remain silent. He spoke again, and this time he did not back down. Now the US establishment had two reasons to attack him:
** He demanded civil rights for black people in the US
** He criticized the US aggression in Vietnam
When he was killed in 1968, it was sad, but hardly a great surprise. It was in fact more surprising that he had managed to live as long as he did, given that he had offended and provoked the interests of the establishment in the way he did.
In this film we follow his life and career over thirteen years: from 1955 to 1968.
We learn how the FBI was watching his every move; and not only watching.
We learn how the FBI was actively trying to disrupt his life in order to weaken the movement whose leader he was; even though the movement was legal and even though he did not use violence to obtain his goals.
What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of three review aggregators:
69 percent = IMDb
51 percent = Meta (the audience)
81 percent = Meta (the critics)
72 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
99 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon, there are at the moment more than 900 global ratings and reviews. The average rating is 4.5 stars which corresponds to a rating of 90 percent.
As you can see, the ratings are quite good. When you look at Meta and Rotten Tomatoes, you can see that there is a clear difference between the general audience and the professional critics. The critics offer a better rating than the audience. This is a common phenomenon. The audience wants to see some action. It is a rare occasion when a documentary film gets ratings over 80 or 90 percent.
In this case, I have to side with the critics. The numerous positive reviews are fully justified. I want to go all the way to the top with this project. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.
PS # 1. While praising the film, I must point out that what we learn here is not new at all. The film is based on a book which was published in 1981.
PS # 2. The following books are written by people who are interviewed in the film:
** Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David Garrow (1986)
** What Would Martin Say? By Clarence B. Jones (2008)
** Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California by Donna Murch (2010)
** A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI used a famous photographer to infiltrate the civil rights movement by Marc Perrusquia (2018)
** An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America by Andrew Young (1998)
** G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the American Century by Beverly Gage (2017)
PS # 3. The existence of COINLTELPRO was revealed in 1971 when a group of eight political activists broke into a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole more than 1,000 secret documents. For details about how the FBI’s secret war on dissent was exposed, see the following items:
** The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Betty Medsger (2014)
** Brian Feldman, “The burglars who revealed COINTELPRO have come forward,” The Atlantic, 7 January 2014
** 1971 – a documentary film which premiered in 2014. The topic of the film is the break-in which took place on 8 March 1971. Director: Johanna Hamilton
PS # 4. Here are three significant publications which cover the FBI’s secret war on dissent:
** The COINTELPRO Papers by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall (first published in 1990) (reprinted in 2002)
** FBI on Trial: The Victory in the Socialist Workers Party Suit against Government Spying edited by Margaret Jayko (1988)
** COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom by Nelson Blackstock (with an introduction by Noam Chomsky) (first published in 1975) (reprinted in 1988)
PS # 5. The following book covers the history of political freedom in the US:
** Freedom Under Fire: Civil Liberties in Times of War by Michael Linfield (1990)
PS # 6. As stated above, the Black Panther Party was one of several groups targeted by the FBI. This story has been told in several books and recently in a historical drama:
** The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther by Jeffrey Haas (2019) – there are more than 600 global ratings of this book on Amazon – the average rating is 4.9 stars
** Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) – the ratings are quite good: IMDb 77 percent – Meta 86 percent – Rotten Tomatoes 96 percent
*****
MLK/FBI (2020)
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