The United States government on Monday released over 230,000 pages of once-secret documents tied to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The files were made public by the administration of former President Donald Trump as part of an executive order signed during his time in office.
This action comes nearly 60 years after the civil rights leader was shot in Memphis, Tennessee.
The release was announced by the current Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who stated that only minimal information was removed from the documents to protect privacy.
The files are meant to offer insight into how the federal government investigated King’s murder.
King was killed in April 1968, and James Earl Ray was later convicted of the crime.
He received a 99-year prison sentence and died in 1998.
However, doubts around the official version of events have continued to circulate, with many believing that the full story has yet to be told.
The newly released records are part of a wider plan that also involved publishing documents related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
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Files on JFK were released in March, while RFK’s were made available in April.
While some have welcomed the effort to open up the files, King’s family is worried about how the information might be used.
His children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, said they support truth and openness but fear that the records could be twisted in ways that hurt their father’s image.
They also reminded the public that King was harshly monitored and targeted by the FBI under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, who launched efforts to damage his reputation during the height of the civil rights movement.
