Black Lives Matter: What About King?
On April 4, 1967 the booming oratory of Martin Luther King jr. echoed through the majestic cathedral of Riverside Baptist Church in New York City, New York. Dr. King had joined a gathering of clergy and layman concerned about Vietnam. This speech was not merely a turning point in terms of King’s focus on policy, it remains one of the best anti-war speeches ever given. It was an indictment of U.S. imperialism and it was a history lesson for many whom the government and media had been lying to about Vietnam for the better part of two decades. In a statement of cruel irony MLK would be executed exactly one year from this day. He had dared to go where few had the courage to tread, U.S. foreign policy. For that he paid the ultimate price. Dr. King stated, “If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned part of the autopsy must read Vietnam.”
With the assassinations of the 1960s the soul of America was plunged into darkness. The first step in recovering the soul of our country is the reclamation of our own history. Desmond Tutu said:
“There can be no healing without truth.”
Can something be a conspiracy theory if there’s evidence and it’s been ruled on in a court of law? I think not. But that word is still weaponized against anyone who dares to challenge the establishment narrative on the killing of Dr. Martin Luther King jr. If you take that phrase and analyze each word, both have legitimacy. Theories mark the beginning of every inquiry, academic or otherwise, and if conspiracies weren’t real, they wouldn’t be illegal.
One of the most astonishing conspiracies ever found to be true in a court of law, is Kings v. Jowers. In 1999, a jury in Memphis Tennessee ruled in this case that MLK was killed in a conspiracy. The findings in this trial shattered the lone gunman official narrative regarding James Earl Ray. This flawed official narrative had existed for thirty-one years prior to the trial. Twenty-two years after the trial, it persists. Trial findings showed that Loyd Jowers, who supplied the gun, was assisted by local, state and federal government, including the military. This trial contained over seventy witnesses and included former Intelligence, Memphis PD officers, a Federal circuit court judge and retired military personnel. It is not a conspiracy theory that this trial took place.
So why doesn’t everyone know?
It’s not in the textbooks. I’ve checked many of them and have yet to find one that mentions the case.
It’s not taught in K-12. I ask the students who enter my courses who killed Dr. King. Hands shoot up with a resounding James Earl Ray. My grandson is a junior in High School at a private school. He was taught James Earl Ray killed MLK.
It’s not spoken of by politicians. Not even by the first African American president, who invoked his name many times.
It’s not talked about by the mainstream media. Not that they would know much about the case since they only covered the trial on key days, like when Coretta King testified. Only Wendell Stacy, a local reporter and cameraman, covered the whole trial, and he paid a price for it. Mr. Stacey recorded the entire trial on his own tapes and pushed for more coverage in the press. As a result he was fired by Clear Channel.
The press blacked out the case. Journalists from other countries marveled at the absence of American journalists in the courtroom for such an important and high profile case.
Author James Douglass attended the trial and wrote an expose for Probe.
In this expose he stated:
“I can hardly believe the fact that, apart from the courtroom participants, only Memphis TV reporter Wendell Stacy and I attended from beginning to end this historic three-and-one-half week trial. Because of journalistic neglect scarcely anyone else in this land of ours even knows what went on in it. After critical testimony was given in the trial’s second week before an almost empty gallery, Barbara Reis, U.S. correspondent for the Lisbon daily Publico who was there several days, turned to me and said, “Everything in the U.S. is the trial of the century. O.J. Simpson’s trial was the trial of the century. Clinton’s trial was the trial of the century. But this IS the trial of the century, and who’s here?”
Kings v. Jowers is not talked about by the Black Lives Matter Movement. I’ve attempted to engage members of that movement on this topic on Twitter.
On this Shaun King thread I had African American twitter users tell me this is old news that most Blacks know. However, I’ve never taught a Black student that is aware of this history.
Most of the time Black Lives Matter activists either ignore me or block me when I ask about Kings v. Jowers. Ive been gaslit, called a “conspiracy theorist” and told to stay in my “crazy White lane.”
The Twitter page of this particular person revealed they are a Democrat and Clinton supporter. That explains it. After all, it should come as no surprise that our government exonerated themselves from the trial findings in a scathing report delivered by the Clinton administration Justice Department.
The son of MLK, Dexter King stated;
“We don’t care what the Justice Department does, I doubt they will indict themselves for who polices the police.”
Hillary Clinton Democrats have chosen power over principle many times but this time hurts.
For the record I’m a Chicana. But identity shouldn’t matter. Everyone should be pushing for the truth on the death of MLK. He was important to all Americans, indeed all citizens of the world in the years prior to his death, as he began to draw appropriate connections between money spent on war and the needs of the poor; regardless of race, color or ethnicity. Unfortunately, any in depth public analysis on corporate air waves of the bombshell trial verdict in Kings v. Jowers has been non-existent. Crickets. Even on MLK Day.
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. — MLK jr.
The execution of Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the darkest secrets kept by nearly everyone in a position to speak truth. Ida B. Wells-Barnett once stated that, “The way to right, wrongs is to shine the light of truth upon them.” If we are going to right wrongs as Ida said, we must shine the harsh light of truth upon the execution of Dr. King.
What are some of the sharp rays of truth that shone through during this trial?
No Police Investigation
The cover up began the moment King was killed through the lack of police investigation. Residents and workers surrounding the Lorraine motel waited to tell their stories more than three decades.
But there were more important details that were revealed during the trial.
Staging the Scene
Douglass described in a January 2000 interview, how the scene of the crime was staged in such a way that anyone who may have been sympathetic to Dr. King had been reassigned prior to the incident.
“What the jury heard from all these witnesses for almost four weeks was that he was assassinated because of the removal of all of the Police protection when he was in the city of Memphis. Even black firemen were taken away. His Body guard staff were removed. Black forces were moved back and reassigned, phony reasons given.” — James Douglass
How could they stage the scene so brilliantly? Frank Holloman helped in that area. He was the Police and Fire Director, former FBI and head of the Memphis office. But no matter how well they set the stage the official narrative was weak and implausible.
A Flawed Official Narrative
“The State’s narrative was that James Earl Ray shot MLK while standing on this bathtub and through this narrow window. Then he bundled up the evidence to implicate himself, including the rifle, and left it where it could easily be found in front of Canipe’s Amusement. However, multiple witnesses, saw shots fired from the bushes, which were trimmed back the very next day.” — James Douglass, January 2000, Interview Hot Potato Media
“For thirty years I’ve been telling people the bundle was dropped before the shot was fired. I’m not at all surprised at the verdict.” — Arthur Haynes jr. Federal Circuit Court Judge. Tenth Judicial District, Birmingham Alabama
Army Photographers?
The former Fire Station Chief described during the trial how two Army photographers had shown him their credentials and he had allowed them on the roof. They had two cameras on the balcony and one whisking around the driveway and into the brush area. Where were the photos all these years? Buried in the Department of Defense archives.
Intelligence Agency Involvement
Walter Fontroy, a member of the House Committee on Assassinations asserted the cover up was in place in 1977–78 which made it impossible to chase leads as they wanted. In part of his follow up he discovered that J. Edgar Hoover met with veterans of the Phoenix Program, a CIA Operation that was responsible for killing tens of thousands of Vietnamese, and that veterans of this program were in Memphis at the scene of the King Assassination.
Infiltration
Marrell McCullouch, an African American intelligence officer, was part of the conspiracy. He infiltrated activists and moved around in his work from Memphis PD, to FBI and then CIA. He met Loyd Jowers in his bar and grill. During the period of the assassination he was driving around members of the SCLC. He was on the scene when King was shot. He rushed up and took (Kings) pulse.
“In other words, one of the assassins is checking to see if they completed their work.” — James Douglass
Coretta Speaks to the “Why”
During the testimony of Coretta Scott King she explained that their goal wasn’t motivated by bitterness, but by truth and justice and to correct the historical record.
“I’ve always felt that somehow the truth would be known, and I hoped that I would live to see it. And it is important I think for the sake of healing for so many people, my family, for other people, for the nation. I think Martin Luther King, Jr., served this nation. He was a servant. He gave his — he willingly gave his life if it was necessary. It is important to know, actually not because we feel a sense of revenge — we never have. We have no feeling of bitterness or hatred toward anybody. But just the fact that if we know the truth, we can be free, and we can go on with our lives. It is not about money. That’s not the issue. I think what we’re concerned about is the fact that certainly there is some liability by Mr. Jowers, but we’re concerned about the truth, having the truth coming out, and in a court of law so that it can be documented for all. And we were hoping that this would be one way of getting to the truth.” — Testimony of Coretta Scott King, Kings v. Jowers trial, 1999
When the trial was over many press outlets told folks how to feel about the verdict. Their columns asserted that the King family was ‘misguided’, the evidence was ‘weak and unsubstantiated.’ But these columns were written by journalists who had not been there to hear the evidence. The press also pushed the Clinton Justice Department analysis which exonerated the government.
Do we see media or public figures; political, intellectual, celebrity or otherwise demand that the truth be taught in school? No, we don’t. None of the people the masses are supposed to believe are “left” ever backed up the family, did their homework and made sure the truth was discussed in the public square. Not once have I heard a black politician or celebrity speak of Kings v. Jowers. They spew the lies of Empire just like their white counterparts. I’m reminded of what Glen Ford, Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report, refers to as the Black misleadership class. These politicians are financed by corporate cash and used to lead African Americans in corporate friendly directions.
Some people lie because they’ve been co-opted and openly bribed, others lie to themselves about the truth because they’ve been lured into the system by a seat at the table, paycheck and pension. I have a relative who marched with Dr. King who won’t even look at Kings v. Jowers, or entertain the notion that trial findings could be true. Their argument is that they marched with Dr. King and would have known if the government had been involved. Dexter King addressed this argument:
“Just because someone says they marched with Dr. King does not make them an authority on this subject. Whether they are political conduits or government publicists who continue to recycle these lies and continue to discredit this family.” — Dexter King
The truth is that class trumps race, in most instances. That’s a truth they don’t want revealed. That’s a big part of why they look the other way about the truth of the assassination of MLK jr.
Democrats and the faux left chose power and prestige over principle. And the GOP looks the other way. If they wanted to reveal Democrats hypocrisy they have had the perfect opportunity; the truth of MLK, killed by our government under a Democratic President. The trial proving the truth, covered up and discredited by a Democratic President. Why hasn’t the GOP used these facts to disrupt the Black vote, which Democrats view as their firewall? It’s not because they’re all racist. It’s because that would disrupt their best tool of division; race.
All his grieving widow asked was for the truth to be known, and as a society we have failed epically.
Coretta King’s wishes have not been respected and adhered to, even by those who marched with him. This is a big reason why I am sure to make my students aware of the findings in Kings v. Jowers. For years the court transcripts and post trial King Family Press Conference have been available on the King Center Website. I have been sending students there for reference throughout my academic career. As I went to retrieve the link to add to this writing, I was dismayed to learn that they have been recently removed! As an historan I find this alarming. But I cannot say I’m surprised since I’ve been struggling with the issue of disappearing digital history for years. This is merely the latest blow, a heavy one at that.
I was unable to even find it using the way back machine.
Fortunately, they can still be found on the internet. Read the transcripts and judge for yourself.
As an educator I’m offended to have lies and sins of gross omission committed by my colleagues for literally decades. How much of our “historical record” is absolute rubbish? More than most “educators” care to admit.
The powerful control the narrative, and as such they control our perceptions of history, who we are and what our government has done. It’s a crime against the people. It dishonors Dr. King and his family. It robs future generations of the opportunity to know how corrupt and criminal the powerful have been. This ignorance enables future crimes with impunity.
I leave you with these powerful words from William Pepper, King Family attorney, whose books I highly recommend.
After Note:
Soon a book on four assassinations, (JFK, King, RFK and Malcolm X), will be released by James Douglass. As a man who sat through Kings v. Jowers and heard the evidence, it promises to be an eye opener that connects the dots and helps establish a pattern of intelligence agency criminality which is interwoven through these four assassinations. Be on the lookout for this book. If the censorship of his book JFK and the Unspeakable is any indication, expect it to be heavily censored.
