Film MLK/FBI explores how FBI tracked Martin Luther King jnr for years

Extensive official monitoring of the black rights leader is revealed just when America is reeling from violence against black communities.

FILE - In this March 21, 1965 file photo, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his civil rights marchers cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., heading for capitol, Montgomery, during a five day, 50 mile walk to protest voting laws. The Edmund Pettus Bridge gained instant immortality as a civil rights landmark when white police beat demonstrators marching for black voting rights 50 years ago this week in Selma, Alabama. What?s less known is that the bridge is named for a reputed leader of the early Ku Klux Klan. Now, a student group wants to rename the bridge that will be the backdrop when President Barack Obama visits Selma on Saturday. (AP Photo/File) AP

Rodney Ho

Jan 19, 2021 – 12.01am

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The Reverend Martin Luther King jnr, for a period of 13 years, was one of the most scrutinised and filmed figures in American history, from the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 to his assassination in Memphis in 1968.

But it wasn't just the press watching him. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which J Edgar Hoover led, took a keen interest in King as he became the de facto leader of the civil rights movement. As King became ever bigger, Hoover's obsession grew as well.

MCT