TIMELINE 1963-1968
THE COLD SIX THOUSAND
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December 2, 1964 "HOOVER MEETS WITH KING"
DOCUMENT INSERT: 12/2/64. Washington Post article.
HOOVER MEETS WITH KING; AIDES DESCRIBE "TENSE CONFRONTATION"
Washington, D.C., December 1.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Assistant Director Cartha DeLoach today met with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his aides Ralph Abernathy and Walter Fauntroy. The meeting took place in Hoover's office at FBI Headquarters.
A range of topics were discussed, including the alleged presence of Communists and Communist sympathizers within the civil-rights movement and the FBI's handling of police brutality charges levied by Negroes and civil-rights workers in the south. King clarified recent statements he had made pertaining to the conduct of FBI agents in Mississippi and their alleged fraternizing with local law-enforcement officials. Hoover countered with a recitation of recent FBI successes in Mississippi and Alabama.
It was expected that rumors of FBI bugs and wiretaps, allegedly deployed against King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, would be discussed. "This was not the case," Dr. Abernathy said. "The dialogue was increasingly subsumed by Mr. Hoover's monologues against Communists and his repeated contention that Ôin due time' attitudes and practices in the south would change."
"Mr. Hoover encouraged Dr. King to 'get out the Negro vote,'" Mr. Fauntroy said. "He did not offer a substantive pledge of support for civil-rights workers in great peril at this very moment."
Both aides described the meeting, which lasted one hour, as "tense." Following the meeting, King met with reporters and stated he believed that he and Mr. Hoover had reached "new levels of understanding."
Hoover declined to comment. Assistant Director DeLoach issued a press release that covered the topics discussed.
Excerpted from The Cold Six Thousand by
James Ellroy
Copyright 2001 by James Ellroy. Excerpted by
permission of Knopf,
a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt
may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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