King: A Life

by Jonathan Eig

Civil rights activists called for Hoover’s resignation, but the FBI director, approaching his seventieth birthday, said he had no intention of stepping aside. In talks with William C. Sullivan, the FBI’s chief of domestic intelligence, Hoover expressed his frustration that the American news media would not report on King’s sexual activities. The bureau had been peddling the stories to news reporters, to no avail. But after the public clash between Hoover and King, Sullivan got more aggressive: he ordered the FBI’s laboratory to create a composite tape containing some of the most explicit moments recorded in King’s hotel rooms. On Saturday, November 21, Sullivan ordered an agent to fly to Miami and mail the tape in an unmarked package to King’s office in Atlanta. He enclosed an anonymous letter on unwatermarked paper, typewritten, tightly spaced, peppered with intentional typos and misspellings, composed to suggest that its author was a disaffected Black man. Its opening sentence echoed Hoover, who made a point of saying he would never put the word “reverend” or “doctor” before the man’s name. The letter read: KING, In view of your low grade, abnormal personal behavior I will not dignify your name with either a Mr. or a Reverend or a Dr. And, your last name calls to mind only the type of King such as King Henry the VIII and his countless acts of adultery and immoral conduct lower than that of a beast. King, look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and a great...