Rabat – The released FBI records on Martin Luther King Jr. hold more than 240,000 pages of records that were under a court-imposed seal since 1977. The FBI turned over the acquired records to the National Archives and Records Administration upon investigation. 

On July 21, the documents were posted on the National Archives government website. The civil rights leader’s records were intended to be sealed until 2027, but Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to disclose the files order beforehand.

King’s family opposed the release, including his two living children Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62. Bernice King was five years old when her father was killed and Martin III was 10. They were notified in advance of the release and their own teams reviewed the records before they were made public. 

“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,”  said the King children in a lengthy statement released Monday.

“We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957, was also in opposition of the release, arguing that the FBI illegally surveilled King through actions such as taping his phone line and bugging his hotel rooms with the intent of using the information against him and his civil rights movement. 

“The intent of the government’s COINTELPRO campaign was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,” said King’s children in their statement. 

“These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo.” 

The Kings’ “support transparency and historical accountability” but “object to any attacks on our father’s legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.” 

As historians and researchers begin to analyze the documents for any further insight into what occurred at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, the civil rights activist children will “review these newly released files” and “assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted.”