The assassination of my father was investigated by the FBI in 1968; by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s; and then once again by the DOJ in the 1990s. I believe the 1962 launch of Operation Breadbasket (a strategic, multifaceted effort to end economic discrimination), along with my father’s ability to captivate the imaginations of more than 250,000 Americans at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, heightened the government’s determination to assassinate his character through the covert, and now infamous, FBI counterintelligence program COINTELPRO. This determination was further intensified by his public opposition to the Vietnam War, which he resoundingly conveyed in his speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” Delivered on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated, the speech included Daddy’s admonishment that the United States government was “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” When the government’s attempt at character assassination failed, another option prevailed: He was ultimately assassinated.
Author: Bernice A. King
Published at: 2025-07-21 21:31:25
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