Thurmond encouraged FBI to go after Dr. King

[Bluebear]

SHAME on you, Strom. SHAME. And I don't care if anyone says it is "pissing on his grave". Bad enough he pursued this, but that he also had a black daughter and was willing to sell out his own flesh and blood for his racist ways. SHAME.



===

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and his staff tried to get the FBI to build a case against civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 on the grounds that King was "controlled by communists," according to a recently released FBI memo on the late senator from South Carolina.

The memo shows Thurmond's attempt to marry two causes dear to him - fighting communism and defeating civil rights.

On Monday, the FBI released a portion of Thurmond's FBI file - nearly 600 pages of sometimes heavily edited memos, letters and other documents. The file details a long, secret and mutually beneficial relationship between Thurmond and the FBI. Another 1,700 pages remain to be released. The documents were released in response to requests by The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.

Thurmond wasn't the only conservative politician who tried to paint the civil rights movement's leaders as "red." But the FBI memo plumbs the depths of Thurmond's aversion to desegregation. And with other pages in the now-public file, it shows how much of Thurmond's politics was dedicated to fighting the "Red Menace."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2270&ncid=2270&e=1&u=/krwashbureau/20050302/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_thurmond_fbifiles_king_wa

[mattclearing]

1. I imagine pissing on ol' Strom's grave is the last thing you be accused of

Strom's long life and fairly uneventful demise raise obvious questions about the nature of life and God.

[ultraist]

2. Yes, he was vile...who had MLK Jr killed? hmmm....

That movement and particular Klan of politicians, which included Jesse Helms, continued on for decades after MLK, Jr was assassinated. They also opposed creating a MLK, Jr holiday as well as other racist things.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. This is extremely scandalous. I don't think it's an exception, either.

I'm pretty damn sure that Ashcroft abused his power and so do Ken Starr and Louis Freeh.

[Bluebear]

4. Of course but it's OK.

They're Republican.