Intelligence Operations Conducted on Martin Luther King Jr. and His Loose Morals: The Changing Motivations for His Surveillance

Authors

Haley D. North Ms., Carleton UniversityFollow

About the Author

I am currently enrolled at Carleton University pursing a Master’s degree in History with a specialization in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. This September I will be focusing on my thesis which focuses on enslaved literacy and resistance in the British West Indies during the early 19th century. Literacy in itself is a form of technology that is inseparable from social circumstance in history and in present day. I completed an honors undergraduate degree at the University of New Brunswick in History and Political Science. My up-to-date research interests include the Atlantic World, Atlantic slavery, United States civil-right histories, and critical race theory.

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The United States intelligence community took great pride in producing insightful intelligence for the protection of threats to their nation and its citizens. However, the government's intentions for surveillance under their administrations can be questioned when analyzing the individual governmental agendas for conducting surveillance against American citizens. One American consecutive administration targeted in particular was Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout Marin Luther King Jr.’s public career there was a constant effort on the part of the government to conduct surveillance of his every move. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) justification under project MINARET for the surveillance of King was claimed to be for discouraging civil disturbance.1 However, agencies' motivations for the surveillance of King changed under each change in presidency. Moreover, the NSA and FBI’s surveillance of King gradually intensified during the Eisenhower Administration and into the Nixon Administration. The government's claim that King was a civil disturbance to national security never wavered, however, how the agencies themselves surveilled King to protect against this threat took different forms throughout the sixties. This paper’s case study on the NSA”s and FBI’s intelligence on Martin Luther King Jr. gives insight into the history of surveillance technology and how the history of technology is inseparable from social histories.

Recommended Citation

North, Haley D. Ms. (2023) "Intelligence Operations Conducted on Martin Luther King Jr. and His Loose Morals: The Changing Motivations for His Surveillance," Madison Historical Review: Vol. 20, Article 4.
Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/mhr/vol20/iss1/4