Twitter Users Not Letting FBI Praise MLK Without Reminder Of Agency’s Actions Against Him
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s birthday today, institutions and organizations have been celebrating in different ways. Public schools are closed. The View aired a pre-taped package of multicultural citizens talking about misconceptions they face because of their race and featured a chat with Van Jones about the future of race relations. The FBI sent a tweet.
Today, the FBI honors the Rev. Martin L. King Jr. and his incredible career fighting for civil rights. #MLKDAY pic.twitter.com/9UEulHmL8a
— FBI (@FBI) January 16, 2017
People on Twitter are not so happy about that last example. After all, under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI didn’t regard MLK as someone who had an “incredible career fighting for civil rights.” In fact, they just wanted him dead. With a whole file of oppositional research on the man, the FBI was regarded as one of the reverend’s biggest enemies. In an investigation into King’s murder, Hoover was found to have had an almost personal vendetta against him, which led to domestic spying and intimidation. Read this.
So yeah, that tweet didn’t go over well.
@FBI pic.twitter.com/mXe62Pxre3
— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 16, 2017
gooooooooooooooo fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooourseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllf https://t.co/9HRQGcH8pf
— Thump and Length (@leokitty) January 16, 2017
the @FBI tried to convince dr king to kill himself, but they used the hashtag so its ok now https://t.co/47Bizei85o
— new year, nude me (@rillawafers) January 16, 2017
Well you’d know him better than anyone else, I suppose. https://t.co/pfU7MeiqbX
— Meola Socialist (@localfanzine) January 16, 2017
.@FBI ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/7PwhXY9NV5
— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) January 16, 2017
Funny how they use “Letter from a Birmingham jail” instead of “letter the FBI wrote exhorting MLK to kill himself” https://t.co/JDTZ1qwKQM
— Kompromat Apple Ally (@CandyAppleAlly) January 16, 2017
@FBI .@FBI pic.twitter.com/kGwdk5Hwfv
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) January 16, 2017
….. no comment https://t.co/iZqY8kHEzV
— beardless joe (@Killer_of_Kings) January 16, 2017
The FBI claimed that MLK was “unfit to serve as a minister of the gospel” in this 1963 letter: https://t.co/snuaE6MoH5 https://t.co/Podmul0fih
— Eric Harvey (@ericdharvey) January 16, 2017
Who sent him this letter, @FBI? https://t.co/7fNESErf6s
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 16, 2017
Remember when Y’all blackmailed MLK & tried to convince him to kill himself? @FBI pic.twitter.com/OscI3GFWTl
— Stefan BC ? (@Stefan_BC) January 16, 2017
Delete this, fam. https://t.co/niiuk7FkAa
— Richard??Johnson (@RJ_Writes) January 16, 2017
@FBI If you really want to honor MLK you’ll take J. Edgar Hoover’s name off of your headquarters.
— Anti-Troll Troll (@RepubAssassin) January 16, 2017
never mind that time they tried to get him to commit suicide https://t.co/OwHwPIpogZ
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 16, 2017
.@FBI pic.twitter.com/uJA8j904pK
— shitshowdotinfo (@shitshowdotinfo) January 16, 2017
We honor the guy we tried to destroy at every turn. Straight-faced and all, the FBI issues statement. On behalf of #MLK, don’t bother. https://t.co/fxSwjfasxi
— Larisa Alexandrovna (@larisa_a) January 16, 2017
Copies of the letter sent by the FBI to blackmail King and urge him to kill himself were tweeted at the agency dozens of times.
@FBI I came to post that letter you snakes sent to Dr. MLK 52 years ago but it looks like nobody’s forgotten
— Harry Tuttle (@_harry_tuttle_) January 16, 2017
Thus far, the tweet remains up on the site.
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