CIA files declassified about King

The declassification of CIA files has shed light on the agency's investigations into Martin Luther King Jr. and potential connections to Communism. This scrutiny was prompted by a report from a major newspaper that suggested King had received an invitation to the Soviet Union. Following this report, the CIA began monitoring King's activities, including the interception of his mail and that of other civil rights leaders. The program responsible for this surveillance was known as HTLINGUAL, which was designed to gather intelligence on individuals deemed to have possible ties to foreign entities, particularly those associated with Communist ideologies. The refusal of Ralph Abernathy, a close associate of King, to comment on the invitation further fueled the agency's concerns and investigations. This period marked a significant intersection of civil rights activism and Cold War politics, as the government sought to understand and potentially undermine movements that it perceived as threats to national security.