His statement found its way into King’s files as well as J. Edgar Hoover’s. King cited the defection by “one of the most brilliant Negro scholars in America” in one of his warnings about the limits of Negro patience: “There can be no doubt that if the problem of racial discrimination is not solved in the not too distant future, some Negroes, out of frustration, discontent, and despair, will turn to some other ideology.” He did not speak publicly of Du Bois again for six years.
