Investigation of the Assassination
of Martin Luther King, Jr.



MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1978

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS

Washington, D.C.

Chairman STOKES. A quorum being present, the committee will come to order.

This morning, the Subcommittee on Assassinations begins its public hearings. The committee's mandate, Resolution 222, which authorized a full and complete investigation of the assassinations of President Kennedy and Dr. King to make two determinations:

First: Are existing U.S. laws, those related to the safety and protection of the President, the deprivation of civil rights, related conspiracies, as well as the investigatory jurisdiction of U.S. Government agencies, adequate?

Second: Did U.S. departments and agencies fully disclose and share information and evidence in the course of prior investigations of the deaths of President Kennedy and Dr. King? If not, is there information not in the hands of a given Government agency that would have assisted in its investigation of the assassinations? Why was the information not forwarded to the appropriate agencies?

The committee has identified three main issues to investigate in order to fulfill its legislative mandate.

First: Who assassinated President Kennedy and Dr. King?

Second: Did the assassin or assassins have assistance; was there a conspiracy?

Third: Did Federal agencies perform adequately in the sharing of information prior to the assassinations, in the protection of President Kennedy and Dr. King and in their investigations of the assassinations?

In addressing these issues, the committee has made every effort to be fair and objective. To begin with, we regard each of them to be equal in importance to the others. We are not, for example, more in-


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terested in conspiracy theories than in a balanced evaluation of agency performance.

Moreover, while it is true that individual members of the committee may have reached some preliminary judgments on certain issues after many months of studying them, we are suspending judgment as a committee until all the evidence is in. Nothing else would be fair.

That brings me to a very important part of our assignment: We must, in the end, report our recommendations to the House of Representatives and to the American public. For this purpose, we have set aside a period in December to weigh the evidence in both the Kennedy case and the King case. Only then will we be ready to reach conclusions, make them public and propose new legislation if we deem it appropriate.

This week, we will begin the King hearings. In September, we will begin and finish the Kennedy hearings. In November, we will return to, and finish, the King hearings.

To meet its objectives, this committee and its staff have labored long and hard. Hundreds of volumes of agency files have been carefully scrutinized, thousands of witnesses have been interviewed and sworn testimony has been taken from many of them, even some who were unwilling to cooperate, and physical evidence has been minutely examined with sophisticated equipment and techniques.

I can say with confidence that each member of the committee has done his homework, though it has been necessary, in view of the enormous body of evidence before us, to ask each member to specialize -- that is, to concentrate on certain prescribed areas of the investigations.

The public hearings that we begin today are designed to present the evidence the investigation has developed to Congress and to the American people. The form of the hearings will constitute a staff presentation to the committee of evidence bearing on the key issues in each assassination. These hearings, and our public meetings in December, will be, in effect, part of our final report.

Another part, a final written version, will be submitted when our work is fully done at the end of December. The hearings are also to be a forum for the purpose of assessing the credibility of the evidence, and if in the process new leads are uncovered, we are prepared to pursue them also.

Today, and the rest of the week, the committee's attention will be directed to some of the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The general subjects we will address are: (1) The assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968 in the context of what Dr. King meant to this country; and (2) the involvement in the assassination, if any, of James Earl Ray.

To begin the first phase of our hearings, I would like to present Congressman Walter Fauntroy, the distinguished Congressman from the District of Columbia who, as chairman of the King assassination subcommittee, has worked unceasingly to meet the mandate that the Congress has charged us with.

It is my pleasure at this time to recognize my esteemed colleague, the gentleman from the District of Columbia.

Mr. FAUNTROY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

The evidence that is about to be presented to this committee and to the American people was assembled by the King subcommittee of our






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Select Committee on Assassinations. In addition to myself, we have had the dedicated participation of the membership of the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut, Mr. Stewart B. McKinney, the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Harold Ford, the distinguished gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Floyd Fithian, and the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Robert Edgar.

In addition, several members of the full committee have joined in our inquiries, including yourself, Mr. Chairman, of course, the ranking minority member of the committee, Mr. Devine and Mr. Harold Sawyer. We have had the very reliable assistance, Mr. Chairman, of a very dedicated staff task force on the King investigation, composed of some 31 attorneys, investigators, and researchers.

To give you an idea of the extent of our investigative effort, I would like to refer to an imposing 284 page work plan. While much of its substantive content is still confidential, I can say this much about our work plan.

First, it adheres strictly, Mr. Chairman, to the main issues that you have identified for our inquiry -- three of them. First, who assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr.? Second, was the assassin assisted by anyone? And, third, how well did the Federal agencies perform with respect to the heinous crime, both before and after the assassination?

I can say, also, that the work plan is comprehensive and thorough. For example, it directs our work in investigating every important conspiracy allegation that has ever been raised with respect to this case, and there were 21 of them in all.

Assuming that every question that this work plan raises is answered, we will be assured that we have a complete and point-by-point inquiry that leaves virtually no stone unturned.

It was necessary, Mr. Chairman, for the subcommittee and the staff to travel far and wide to fulfill its assignment. As a case in point, the subcommittee members or investigators, for example, went to every city that James Earl Ray is known to have visited during the period of his being a fugitive, both before and after the assassination.

This included trips to foreign countries, to Canada, to Mexico, to Portugal, to Great Britain. In all, the subcommittee task force made 487 trips to 714 geographic points, over 2,272 days of travel.

We also gathered evidence through the testimony of witnesses at hearings. In keeping with our policy that the investigation be carried out in secret to protect the witnesses and the integrity of the evidence we were gathering, those hearings have been held in executive session. We had, to date, 34 such hearings, at which 75 witnesses have given testimony and on 41 occasions, orders of immunity have been obtained from the Federal courts so that witnesses could testify with candor.

We have also looked, Mr. Chairman, at agency files. The staff has reviewed over 360 files, files from the FBI, from the Drug Enforcement Administration, from Immigration and Naturalization, and other services. But that figure, quite frankly, does not tell the whole story, since a file can range from a few pages to literally thousands of pages.

The FBI file on the murder of Dr. King, for example, consists of some 93 volumes that contain over 6,000 serials and exhibits.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, the subcommittee employed several expert consultants. This was appropriate because many of the areas of the investigation required highly specialized expertise. To analyze the au-






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topsy of Dr. King, for example, we called upon the top forensic pathologist in the United States. We will hear the results of their examinations when we reconvene here tomorrow.

To study the ballistics evidence, the rifle believed to have been used in the assassination, as well as bullets and cartridge cases, we resorted to the expert knowledge of highly qualified firearms analysts, men who are employed by outstanding police departments around the country.

In all, Mr. Chairman, there were 17 consultants placed under contract in such diverse fields as photography, medical illustration, handwriting and polygraph analysis.

So, as you can see, this has been a broad but concentrated effort, though I realize that the real tests will come as we assess the quality of the evidence that we have gathered.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me again emphasize the seriousness with which the members of this committee have undertaken this inquiry. We believe that it can serve at least two valuable purposes. First, it can serve to restore, I think, the confidence of the American people in our Government. That confidence, since the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis in 1968, has been shaken at points. The American people want to know that their Government is telling them the whole truth. If the confessed assassin did, in fact, kill Dr. King, the American people want to know that.

If, on the other hand, there were those who conspired to take the life of Dr. King, it is important that we establish that, if for no other purpose, than to serve notice on any who would assassinate any present or future leaders that the intelligence agencies of this Government will not be lax and that they will not find convenient loopholes through which to slip undetected.

Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say that truth crushed to earth will rise again. We are making a serious effort to establish what, in fact, was the truth. If there has been truth that has been crushed to the earth, we are determined to preside over the resurrection of that truth.

Chairman STOKES. Thank you very much, Mr. Fauntroy. Let me commend you and the members of your subcommittee whom I personally know worked untiringly and unceasingly in order to try and provide, not only to this committee but to the House and to the American public, the facts and circumstances as you have uncovered them. Each of you are to be commended for an excellent job and commitment that you have had.

I would like, at this time, to recognize my colleague, the ranking minority member of this committee who has devoted many, many hours of time to both full committee and subcommittee work and has done so with a type of commitment that has been a real source of comfort to me as chairman of the full committee.

We have had the privilege of working together in a completely non-partisan manner, and I have been extremely impressed with the kind of devotion and commitment and dedication this gentleman has devoted to this enormously important task.

It is my pleasure at this time to recognize the distinguished gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Devine.

Mr. DEVINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your most generous comments.






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My remarks will be quite brief so that we can get on with the hearing. Just as a footnote, as the ranking minority member of this select committee, I would like to emphasize how totally nonpartisan this investigation has been. I would go so far as to say it has been absolutely nonpolitical, as it should be, in light of the complexity of the task assigned to us by Congress. You may note, Mr. Chairman, of how we have made every effort to be fair and objective, and in this, I heartily agree, but I would add another bit of description to our work, this has been a completely impartial investigation.

It has been my experience that every member of the committee and the staff has gone about their assignments with but one goal in mind, and that is to learn the truth. This is not to say that the committee has not, at times, been involved in controversy, as anyone with a memory that goes back some 17 months would recall. For over 1 year now, the committee has been quietly and professionally doing its job, notwithstanding that from the outside there have been some that would be opportunists and others that would perhaps exploit not only the assassination situation, but also, the work of this committee.

Though we have not been without our critics, I think in the end, once the American people have had the opportunity to review the evidence we will present, they will be convinced that this committee performed a credible and professional job on behalf of all Americans and in total response to the mandate given to us by the Congress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman STOKES. Thank you, Mr. Devine.

At this time, in order to effectuate the presentation of the evidence to this committee, I want to recognize, for purposes of presentation, the general counsel of this committee and staff director, Prof. G. Robert Blakey. Mr. Blakey.

Mr. BLAKEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As the committee begins its public hearings, it seems appropriate to reflect for a moment on the meaning of the life, and the death, of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for the ultimate issue this committee must face is were they, his life and his death, isolated one from another.

The bullet that smashed into Dr. King on April 4, 1968, opened a wound in our society that will never heal completely. His death foreshadowed the seeming end of a period of civil rights progress that Dr. King had led and for which his life had become a symbol.

Dr. King's legacy has been profound change in our social fabric -- to the advantage of Blacks, as well as all Americans.

But after his death, as a Washington Post writer put it, "***his army of conscience disbanded, the banners fell, the movement unraveled***."

Dr. King's life, too, must be placed in a wider context. It would be a mistake, unfortunately, to regard this tragic event in Memphis in 1968 as an aberration. Civil rights violence in this country dates back at least to the 18th century, when bands of runaway slaves began mounting attacks on plantations, igniting fears by the 1790's of a general slave uprising.

This violence did not end with America's first struggle for freedom in the Revolution of 1776. By the 1850's, feeling once again was running high over the issue that was soon to tear the Union itself asunder. The pillaging and burning of Lawrence, Kans., by proslavers






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in 1856, led abolitionist John Brown to launch a bloody retaliatory raid on Pottawatamie, Kans.

It was after the end of the Civil War and emancipation, however, that the most brutal assaults occurred, as a wave of murders swept the South. In the postwar decade, some 3,500 civil rights advocates were slain, 1,884 of them in 1868 alone. Indeed, violent outbreaks were commonplace.

When Blacks appealed for their right in Memphis in 1866, 47 of them were massacred by rioting white terrorists.

Whites in New Orleans attacked the Louisiana State Convention of 1866, killing 27 Black delegates.

Of 16 Blacks elected as delegates to the Mississippi Constitutional Convention in 1868, two were assassinated by whites.

In the Alabama campaign of 1870, four Black civil rights leaders were murdered when they attended a Republican rally.

In the Mississippi campaign of 1874, several Black leaders in Vicksburg were attacked and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

In Louisiana, in the election of 1878, Klan gunmen fired on Blacks standing at the polls in Caddo Parish, killing 40, by one account, 75 according to another.

Systematic violence, designed to cow Blacks asserting their right to vote, led Attorney General Alphonso Taft to declare in 1876: "It is the fixed and desperate purpose of the Democratic Party in the South that the Negroes shall not vote and murder is a common means of intimidation to prevent them."

In the 1890's the legislatures of all Southern States disfranchised Black citizens. The then Supreme Court not only failed to intervene, but in the case of Giles v. Harris in 1903, it officially sanctioned the practice. As the Black vote disappeared in the South, it is understandable that the murder of civil rights leaders decreased dramatically, only to be replaced by two other forms of white terrorism: riots and lynchings.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1909 to deal with them -- at the expense of further assertion of Black political power.

The NAACP remained the leading civil rights organization for the first half of the 20th century. Its primary role was to offer legal counsel to Blacks whose rights had been denied. In 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality was founded. For the most part, it sponsored sit-ins of segregated facilities.

Nevertheless, there were signs of progress in the 1940's. A resurgent civil rights movement was beginning to develop. The Supreme Court, a new Supreme Court, prohibited all-white primary elections, declared unconstitutional restrictive real estate covenants, and ordered an end to segregation of interstate passengers.

In 1947, President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights recommended the enactment of fair employment legislation. In 1948, President Truman abolished segregation in the Armed Forces and in Government agencies.

The civil rights movement of our time set its roots, its deep roots, in the field of education, with a hefty assist from a monumental Supreme Court decision. On May 17, 1954, after a long struggle through the courts by Blacks, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Court an-






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nounced its ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. But the decision was only the beginning of a long struggle, for it was not easily accepted in the South.

Indeed, many historians believe the real beginning of the new Black revolt against inequality was marked in Montgomery, Ala., on December 1, 1955. When four Black passengers were asked by the driver of a downtown bus to give up their seats, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused and was arrested. In protest, Black leaders organized a boycott that lasted for 382 days. It ended when the courts ordered buses integrated.

The bus boycott was guided by the words of a 27-year-old Black Baptist minister, who emerged from it as a fresh and dynamic force among American Blacks. Preaching "the Christian doctrine of love and operating through the Ghandian method of nonviolence", Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., represented a new leadership. And he had shown in Montgomery that he knew how to use direct action to achieve justice.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed in early 1957 with Dr. King as its president. Adopting a nonviolent approach, SCLC was dedicated to the integration of Black Americans in all aspects of American life.

In May 1957, addressing the first major Black demonstration in Washington since World War II, Dr. King returned to a theme that had lain dormant for 60 years, the right to vote. "Give us the ballot," he pleaded, "and we will no longer have to worry the Federal Government about our basic rights."

He was on his way to becoming one of the most influential Black leaders of his time, a symbol of the hope for equality for all Americans.

It was a time of fast-moving events, actions, and counteractions in a continuing conflict.

On September 9, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a law that markedly enlarged the Federal role in race relations. It established a Civil Rights Commission and a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department. Most important, it gave the Attorney General authority to seek injunctions against obstruction of voting rights. That same month, in Little Rock, Ark., violent rioting erupted over the integration of Central High. Nine Black students were successfully enrolled, but not before 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen were sent in. The price of progress was a polarization of southern attitudes and those elsewhere.

The year of 1960 was a year of sit-ins. They began February 1 in Greensboro, N.C., spreading rapidly to cities in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Florida. By the end of the year, Blacks were being served at lunch counters in hundreds of southern stores. Again, there was white resistance. As the sit-ins set the pace of a campaign to open up public facilities of all sorts, there were thousands of arrests and occasional outbreaks of violence.

Violence was more than occasional in 1961, the year of the freedom rides. They began in May when members of CORE boarded two buses in Washington and set out for New Orleans, intending to test segregation laws on the buses as well as in the terminals en route. Trouble broke out in Alabama. The demonstrators were attacked and beaten in Anniston and Birmingham. One bus was stoned and burned.






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When another group of students left Atlanta to ride to Montgomery the following week, Attorney General Kennedy sent 500 Federal marshals to protect them. The students, unfortunately, arrived before the marshals, however, and they were severely beaten.

The next evening, an angry mob surrounded a church where Dr. King was to speak. The marshals and federalized National Guardsmen had to escort the congregation home. The freedom riders met with little violence in Mississippi, though they had to reckon with a legal system that gave them little leeway. Over 300 demonstrators were arrested for breach of the peace and for disobeying police orders to disperse in segregated terminals.

Reaction in Washington to the attacks on the freedom riders was swift. Attorney General Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission which on September 22 adopted rules banning segregation on interstate buses and in terminals.

Across-the-board desegregation of Albany, Ga., was the focus of civil rights efforts led by Dr. King in the summer of 1962. The city reacted by arresting 1,100 demonstrators, including Dr. King and his colleague, the Reverend Ralph Abernathy. The Albany campaign received national attention, but it failed to crack southern resistance symbolized by the city.

This was not the case in the fall of 1962 in Oxford, Miss., site of the all-white University of Mississippi. James Meredith, an Air Force veteran, had been enrolled at Jackson State College when he decided to seek a transfer to Ole Miss. When he was rejected, Meredith filed suit. After 16 months of litigation, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that he had been turned down solely because of his race and ordered that he be accepted.

Outright obstruction by State officials led the court to order that the Governor and Lieutenant Governor pay daily fines unless they stopped interfering with its ruling.

On October 1, 320 Federal marshals arrived at Oxford to escort Meredith to his dormitory, setting off a riot in which 2 persons were killed, 375 injured, before it was quelled by the presence of Federal troops. When the tear gas had cleared, Meredith was the first Black student to enter Ole Miss.

An all-out attack was launched in the spring of 1963 on segregation in Birmingham, Ala., called by Dr. King "the most segregated city in the United States." Civil rights activities sought removal of racial restrictions in downtown snack bars, restrooms, and stores, as well as nonracial hiring practices and the formation of a biracial committee to negotiate further integration. Sit-ins, picket lines, and parades were met with hundreds of arrests on charges of demonstrating without a permit, loitering, and trespassing. But as each effort was blocked, a larger one loomed in its place.

On Good Friday, Dr. King, along with Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth, was arrested, but the demonstrations continued. On May 2, 2,500 Blacks, most of them high school students, were arrested. On May 3, one group of demonstrators was bombarded by bottles, while another was met by Police Commissioner Bull Conner with his dogs and fire hoses.

Publication of pictures of police tactics in Birmingham led to a worldwide outcry and negotiations with the city followed in which Dr.






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King agreed to suspend the campaign on May 8. But two dynamite blasts 3 days later sent thousands of Blacks back to the streets. When calm was restored, Dr. King was viewed as having triumphed due to the vast media attention he had attracted.

One by one, lunchcounters and other public facilities were open to Blacks.

Birmingham became a rallying cry for antisegregationist activities in hundreds of cities in the summer of 1963. Marches were held in Selma, Ala.; Albany, Ga.; Cambridge, Md.; Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; Nashville and Clinton, Tenn.; Shreveport, La.; Jackson and Philadelphia, Miss., as well as in New York and Chicago. It was also a period of tragedy. In June, Medgar Evers, NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, was murdered, and in September the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed, killing four Black girls attending Sunday school.

A climatic point in the campaign for Black equality came on August 28, 1963, when over 200,000 demonstrators assembled in Washington for a march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King's address was acclaimed as the most memorable moment of the day. He said:

I have a dream that one day this Nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal."

The civil rights movement of this century has passed through three phases, each distinct in character, though they have overlapped in time. The first, desegregation, was an effort to break down the barriers of an old and corrupt social order. The second, integration, was concentrated on the opening up of opportunities -- as in the case of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which guaranteed Blacks the right to vote, guaranteed access to public accommodations, authorized the Federal Government to sue to desegregate public facilities and schools, mandated nondiscrimination in Federal programs and required equal employment opportunity. The third, a quest for world peace and an end to economic injustice, not only for Blacks, but for all the Nation's poor, was uppermost in Dr. King's mind in 1968 at the time of his death. It was exhibited by his staunch opposition to the war in Vietnam and by his preoccupation with the poor people's march to Washington.

In this last quest, Dr. King seemingly was questioning the social order of the country. For this, perhaps, he made more enemies than for his activism in the cause of civil rights. His life and its steady movement toward freedom, justice, equality and peace pose difficult, terribly difficult questions, going to the reasons for his death. These causes and others were interred, for many, with his body at the memorial gravesight in Atlanta. Was his death then unrelated to his life, a senseless act, or did it, like his life, have meaning? It is to this question that this committee, the House, and the American public must now turn in these hearings.

Mr. Chairman, the witness we are now about to call, with your permission, is Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Dr. Abernathy was a close associate and personal friend of Dr. King. He is presently pastor of the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta. He was formerly financial secretary-treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference






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and later elected vice president at large of SCLC and the designated successor of Dr. King. When Dr. King was assassinated, Dr. Abernathy became president of SCLC.

Mr. Chairman, it would be appropriate to call Dr. Abernathy.

Chairman STOKES. Thank you. The committee now calls Dr. Abernathy.

Would the witness please stand and be sworn?

Dr. Abernathy, do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give before this committee is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Dr. ABERNATHY. I do.

Chairman STOKES. Thank you. You may be seated. And on behalf of the committee, Dr. Abernathy, it is indeed a pleasure and an honor to welcome you here this morning and to receive your testimony. For purposes of that testimony, the committee now recognizes Mr. Charles Mathews, special counsel to the committee.

Mr. MATHEWS. Good morning, Dr. Abernathy, welcome.

Testimony of Dr. Ralph Abernathy

Dr. ABERNATHY. Good morning, Mr. Mathews, and members of the committee, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MATHEWS. Dr. Abernathy, how long have you been associated with the SCLC?

Dr. ABERNATHY. I have been associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference since its inception, and that was in January 1957.

Mr. MATHEWS. Previous to that, were you also associated with the Montgomery Improvement Association?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; I organized the Montgomery Improvement Association on December 2, 1955.

Mr. MATHEWS. What was the purpose of both those organizations, that is, the Montgomery Improvement Association, and SCLC, which followed?

Dr. ABERNATHY. The purpose of the Montgomery Improvement Association was to integrate the buses of Montgomery, the capital of the great State of Alabama. As you know, in 1955 and prior thereto, the city buses in Alabama and across the Deep South were segregated. And in Montgomery, we had a system where the first 10 seats on every bus were reserved for white passengers and Black persons could not even occupy these seats on a temporary basis. Several Black women had been arrested and brutalized and mistreated on the buses and finally, on December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks, Rosa Parks, was arrested; and the next morning, on the second, Mr. E.D. Nixon informed me of this arrest and asked me if I would not do something about the situation, and I called together the Black pastors and leaders of the city of Montgomery in order that we might organize a bus boycott, that is, to refuse to ride the buses for a 2- or 3-day period, in order that we might gain three things: No. 1, more courtesy on the part of the bus drivers; No. 2, a change in the seating policy, for Blacks beginning in the rear and whites beginning in the front, and wherever the two groups met, of course, this would be the dividing line. And second -- or third -- the employment of Black drivers on predominantly






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Black bus routes. However, none of these were granted, and our bus boycott stretched over a period of 381 days in an attempt really to integrate city buses.

However, let me add that in the beginning we were merely seeking an improved form of segregation; that is, if you can have any such things as an improved form of segregation, on the buses.

Mr. MATHEWS. Did there come a time, however, Dr. Abernathy, when that particular stage was completed and you then formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; is that not correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. That is correct. Our movement spread to other cities, like Tallahassee, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; and all across the South, because we were using a new technique, one that had never been tested in America before, and that was nonviolent direct action; and this had been so very, very effective until other communities had adopted it, and we were being called, Dr. King and myself, to come to these various cities, so we decided we would organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Mr. MATHEWS. For what purpose?

Dr. ABERNATHY. For the purpose of redeeming the soul of America through nonviolent means. We gathered in Atlanta, Ga., and, of course, had a preliminary session, and, of course, during that very night my home was bombed and the church that I pastored was dynamited, and this interrupted the proceedings, and I had to return to Montgomery with Dr. King; and we did not complete the organizational process until a month later, which was really in the spring of 1957, in New Orleans, La., for the purpose of redeeming the soul of America, and this encompassed not just the integrating of the buses but dealing with many other problems.

Mr. MATHEWS. You mentioned you and Dr. King. That leads me to another line of questioning. When did you first meet Dr. King?

Dr. ABERNATHY. I met Dr. King first in 1951. I was student at the university studying for a master's degree in sociology, and I heard of this very young, able, gifted, articulate preacher of the gospel, following the style of the Apostle Paul, and I went over one Sunday to hear him preach in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and I was greatly impressed with him. I met him at the close of the worship service and we exchanged briefly some chat and conversation and, of course, over the summer we had a very brief acquaintance. However, he soon returned to Crozer Theological Seminary, and I completed my work and returned to my alma mater, Alabama State University, where I accepted a teaching position. We did not meet again until the spring of 1955 when Dr. King came to Montgomery to try out, or to preach, an initial sermon at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, a daughter church of the First Baptist Church, which I was pastoring, and, of course, he had the responsibility of bringing along my guest, Dr. Vernon Johns, who was his predecessor, who had formerly pastored the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He had to bring him to my home because Dr. Johns had hitchhiked a ride to Montgomery with Dr. King and, of course, Dr. King accepted my wife's invitation to have dinner with us, and this was the beginning of a friendship, a very close association, that ended only on April 4, 1968, when he died in my arms in the St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.






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Mr. MATHEWS. Dr. Abernathy, your testimony is that you first met Dr. King in 1951. How would you describe your relationship with Dr. King from 1951 through the date of the assassination?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, I would describe it as having been one of the closest relationships that has ever existed between two individuals. I think I would have to say that I know of one other friendship, as I study history, that was likened unto ours, and that was the friendship of Jonathan and David. We were the dearest of friends. He said this many times from platforms. In the last speech that he made, he made it very clear by saying that I want the Nation and the world to know that the dearest and closest friend I have in the world is Ralph David Abernathy. I felt the very same way about him. The last meal that he ate in the world, we ate it from the very same platter together. We always shared the room whenever we traveled. We were just inseparable. We were the dearest of friends.

Mr. MATHEWS. Going back again, Dr. Abernathy, from 1955 through 1968, could you describe Dr. King's role in the various stages of the civil rights movement in that period?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, I would say that the first stage was a stage in which we sought to do away with the whole evil of an unjust system of segregation in this country, whereby Blacks were denied their constitutional and God-given rights; where they had to ride in the back of the bus; they had to sit in the balcony of the theater; they had to ride up in the front of the train. This contradictory, unjust system, this evil system of segregation manifested itself first in our attempts to destroy it through the Montgomery bus boycott and through the struggle in Birmingham, Ala., which took place in 1963. Once we had solved the question of segregation and we had won the right to ride anywhere we chose to on the buses, to live in hotels and motels of this country, we then moved to another level, and that is to exercise our most basic and democratic right as American citizens: the right to vote; and this was manifested and seen very clearly in the Selma demonstration which culminated in the march from Selma to Montgomery, a 50-mile journey, where several individuals lost their lives, like Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, and Rev. James Reeb and Jimmy Lee Jackson. This would have been, in my estimation, the second stage of the King era, the King campaign. And then I would say that the third era of the King campaign had to do with the whole question of international problems or the peace movement. This is when he exercised a great deal of courage and came out against the ungodly senseless war in Vietnam and made very clear the fact that nations must not lift up sword against nation, the philosophy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, that followed to its ultimate conclusion, would end up with a blind society and a toothless generation. This, of course, caused a great deal of concern, interest, and made for him a great deal of enemies, for there were those who believed that it was all right for Dr. King to lead a nonviolent protest, to integrate the lunch counters, but they did not believe that he should have a voice in foreign policy or foreign affairs.

The fourth and final stage, Mr. Counselor, in my estimation, as I look back at his life and as I will describe it more clearly in my book in the very near future, has to do with Dr. King's crusade for economic security on the part of Blacks and whites, and is seen very






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clearly in his organizing for the poor people's campaign, and in the midst of that organizational process the striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., sent out the Macedonian call for Dr. King to come and give aid and assistance and help in that struggle.

Dr. King realized that it was not enough to eat at lunchcounters, to live in hotels and motels, and yet at the very same time, once you checked in without difficulties, you suffered great difficulties checking out, because you don't have a job, you do not have the income that is necessary, you realize that it was not enough to have the right to vote, to be able to once again send Black men and women to the Congress of the United States, unless that was buttressed by economic power. He realized that it was not enough for men of various nations of the world to coexist and to cease fighting and killing one another, but he felt that the most basic need for Blacks and poor whites in this country was to enjoy the blessings of this land -- and I call it economic security, jobs and income -- because he realized that everybody would not be able to work but that it is the responsibility of the Government to provide adequate income for those who are too old to work, for those who are unable to work, and for those individuals who are too young to work, and for those individuals whom the country, the Nation, does not train or prepare for work. So, I call it jobs and income.

A guaranteed annual income is what I called for before a congressional committee last Wednesday when I was here in Washington.

Mr. MATHEWS. It is fair to say that, when the Memphis sanitation workers' strike started, which occurred in February of 1968, SCLC, Dr. King, and yourself, had already begun to focus on the economic issues of the day; is that correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, that is correct. We were organizing the poor people's campaign and we really had to interrupt our organizational process.

Mr. MATHEWS. Did Dr. King see the Memphis sanitation workers' strike as an opportunity to put that new stage into effect?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, I think that Dr. King's main concern was really at that point to help the poor, because this massive poor people's campaign where we were going to bring the poor, and eventually I did bring the poor, from all across the Nation. Black and white, brown, red and yellow, to Washington, would dramatize the whole situation and we would expose poverty. The man was such a great man, he was such a good man, he was such a sensitive man. When he heard the cries of striking sanitation workers, garbage workers, who could not get a decent wage in Memphis, Tenn., he altered his plans, and finally, we, as a staff in SCLC, decided that we were coming to Washington with a poor people's campaign but we were coming by the way of Memphis, Tenn.: that is, we were going to straighten out Memphis before we dealt with the Nation.

Mr. MATHEWS. Do you recall who invited Dr. King to Memphis the first time, on March 18, 1968, when he gave his speech at the Mason Temple?

Chairman STOKES. Would counsel suspend for a moment?

I am requesting that the photographers who are seated in front of the witness table and who are continuing to take photographs of Dr. Abernathy, to remove themselves from that area. If there are any






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further photographs you want of the witness, you have 15 seconds to take them, and then remove yourselves.

The Chair has no objection to your remaining in the room, but we think this testimony is extremely important to the committee and I am sure this is distracting to the witness.

Thank you. You may resume, counsel.

Mr. MATHEWS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Let me repeat my question, Dr. Abernathy.

Do you recall who invited Dr. King to speak in Memphis on March 18, 1968?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; I recall very well. It was Rev. James Lawson, who was then the pastor of the Centenary United Methodist Church and the Rev. Ralph Jackson, the director of the minimum salary department of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. These two ministers along with Rev. Billy Kyles had organized a citizens group to support the striking sanitation workers, and they had brought in several national speakers of prominence, like Mr. Roy Wilkins, Mr. Bayard Rustin, and some others, and finally, they came to that period and moment when they really wanted to bring in the best that we had, one that would really pack and fill the Mason Temple Church of God and Christ building that would seat some 12,000 or 13,000 persons, and, of course, they invited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to come in. As I have already stated, we were in the process of organizing for the poor people's campaign, and, of course, Dr. King went at a great sacrifice to our cause. Realizing that our cause was merely a cause for the betterment of mankind, he decided that he was going to go to Memphis.

Mr. MATHEWS. So his purpose in going on March 18, 1968, was mainly for the purpose of giving a speech in support of the strike; is that correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. That is correct.

Mr. MATHEWS. Do you recall where Dr. King stayed on his first visit on that date?

Dr. ABERNATHY. I believe it was the Lorraine Motel. We made all of our visits, through Memphis and into Memphis, and all of our stops were at the Lorraine Motel.

Mr. MATHEWS. I am sorry, go ahead.

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; because the days of segregation had just come to a close and still you encountered some difficulties in registering at some of the motels and hotels and we felt very much at home at the Lorraine Motel. Much of our work of organizing for the poor people's campaign, counselor, had taken place in the State of Mississippi. The whole idea had been conceived in Mississippi. And the way we were going to Mississippi was to fly into Memphis and then, of course, we would be met and driven down to Marks, Miss. This was a much more direct route than flying into Jackson. As you know, there were very few airports large enough at the time to accommodate the large jets out of Atlanta.

Mr. MATHEWS. Just on the Lorraine Motel point, then it was not unusual for Dr. King or members of SCLC to stay at the Lorraine when they had business in Memphis; is that correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. That is correct.

Mr. MATHEWS. You had stayed there in the past; is that correct?






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Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; we had a standard room there.

Mr. MATHEWS. Let me see if I can summarize your testimony briefly, Dr. Abernathy. Dr. King was invited to Memphis on March 18, 1968, by Reverend Lawson and other members of the Memphis community group.

He gave a speech that night at the Mason Temple; is that correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. That's correct.

Mr. MATHEWS. There came a time when he decided to return to Memphis again, not just to give a speech, but to lead a march; is that correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, it was really to give a speech and to lead a march.

Mr. MATHEWS. Will you describe briefly how that event occurred; that is, the decision to return to Memphis and lead a march on March 22, 1968?

Dr. ABERNATHY. We had really made no definite commitment to Memphis, Tenn.'s striking sanitation workers. Dr. King had been invited merely to speak and, of course, upon the second invitation, we had gotten up as far as New York and New Jersey in organizing for the poor people's campaign and after having had a very, very successful date on that Wednesday, Dr. King did not want to leave New Jersey because he wanted very much to go to Paterson, so he asked that I would go and make the speech on that Wednesday evening at Mason Temple Church. And, of course, he would join me the next morning. He would take a flight out of New York early the next morning and come to Memphis where we would lead the march.

But he would not be present at the rally. So, after some, persuasion, I decided that I would go to Memphis and deliver the speech, which I did. There were some 10,000 or 12,000 persons there throughout.

Now, on that evening, I was the guest of the Municipal, County, and State Employees Union, headed by Mr. Jerry Wurf, and they had a room for all of their guests in the Peabody Hotel; this is the old, downtown established hotel in Memphis.

Mr. MATHEWS. So, you stayed in the Peabody?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; because it is unionized. This was the argument that they gave.

Mr. MATHEWS. That morning, did you travel to the airport and pick up Dr. King?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; the next morning, of course, as usual, through the courtesy of a funeral home in Memphis and Rev. Solomon Jones, the driver, I was picked up and taken to the airport to meet Dr. King, and from there, we went to the Clayborn Temple A.M.E. Church and the Minimum Salary Building of the A.M.E. Church, and we could not follow our usual custom of going in the church workshopping the marchers on our nonviolent technique and gathering from them their knives, whatever they had, which would keep them from becoming violent in case they might be attacked, became there were so many people outside and there was a restlessness within the crowd.

There were large numbers of young people who appeared to be very, very cooperative, yet, they were restless and anxious to actually move and to get going with that march.

Mr. MATHEWS. So, was the decision made by yourself and Dr. King to proceed with the march on the 28th of March?






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Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; and in consultation with local leaders we decided the best thing to do was to really get the march started so that we would not face what we had faced here in Washington where the people were here, the leaders were supposed to be out front, and the people were ready to march.

So we thought it would be best to really get the march started, and we moved down Beale Street, a very famous street in Memphis, and turned into Main Street. It was then that these young men, there were some Black men in the march who began to pat us on the back and congratulate us and tell us how great we were and how blessed they were to have us in Memphis, and then we would hear smashing seemingly of windows and then it became very clear to us that windows were being broken and that violence had broken out on this march and Dr. King signaled Rev. James Lawson to come to him with his bullhorn and he said violence has broken out on this march: I will never lead a violent march, so, please call it off. And Reverend Lawson called the march off.

At that very moment, the Memphis Police and State troopers appeared with their tear gas and began to fix their helmets, and, of course, at that point, someone stopped the last car that they permitted to cross Main Street and asked that we might use the car to take Dr. King out of the crowd.

Of course, Rev. Bernard Lee, myself and Dr. King were put in this car. Reverend Jones drove the car down to the Riverside Drive with the aid of two motorcycle cops. And once we were here, they wanted to know what hotel we wanted to go to, and, of course, I suggested the Peabody because that's where I had spent the night before. They said they could not get to the Peabody because violence had broken out, the city had been tear gassed and it was impossible to cross Main Street.

Then Dr. King said, "Well, to the Lorraine Motel, and they said, "Well, that's even worse. We cannot get to the Lorraine Motel, but we will take you to a hotel, and they took us to the Riverdale.

Mr. MATHEWS. Was that the Rivermont?

Dr. ABERNATHY. The Rivermont, maybe that's it; the Rivermont Holiday Inn. We had never been there before, but I guess they had radioed ahead because they were expecting us. They had a suite ready. We were taken directly to the suite with two bedrooms and a living area, and it was there that we heard over the news that a curfew had been called for by the mayor of the city.

No one was permitted on the streets. A young Black man had been killed and Dr. King was greatly, greatly disturbed. It was the most restless night. It was a terrible and a horrible experience for him. I had never seen him in all my life so upset and so troubled by the fact that violence had broken out on his march.

This was the first time that we had ever experienced any violence from our ranks. Certainly, violence had been inflicted upon our demonstrators, but never before had any of our demonstrators perpetrated any violence, defensive or aggressive, upon anyone and naturally, he was concerned about his image across the country and they were giving him a tough time about Vietnam, at that time, of course, the press was very, very familiar with him.

No longer was he a novelty and they were writing editorials that were not too complimentary and, of course, Dr. King was greatly disturbed by all of this, and this was a horrible evening.






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Mr. MATHEWS. Did he make the decision at that time to return to Memphis to lead a nonviolent march or was that decision made later?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; that decision was made later.

Mr. MATHEWS. When?

Dr. ABERNATHY. That decision was not made until Saturday. The march had taken place on Thursday. The night of which I speak of that was such a painful night was a Thursday night.

Mr. MATHEWS. That was March 28, 1968.

Dr. ABERNATHY. That is correct.

Mr. MATHEWS. Did the decision you speak of occur on March 30, 1968, which was a Saturday?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; that is correct. That decision was made by the executive staff of the conference.

Mr. MATHEWS. What was that decision?

Dr. ABERNATHY. If I may just back up a little, just let me say that, on Friday morning, Dr. King had called for a press conference and, of course, I guess he fell asleep around 5 or 6 o'clock. I permitted him to sleep once he had finally gone to sleep, and a group of young men came to the hotel--

Mr. MATHEWS. This is at the Rivermont on Friday the 29th of March?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; they came and asked if they could see Dr. King. Of course, I told them that he was resting and he needed to rest. Then they identified themselves as members of the Invaders and said they were the people responsible for the violence, that they had dropped out of the ranks of the march and broken windows and then taken refuge back in the march.

I readily recognized many of them because these were the young men who were patting us on the back; they were young Black men saying how wonderful it was that we had come to Memphis to help them and they said that they were very, very disturbed because the young man who had been killed in the violence was a member of their group, and they wanted to make that confession to Dr. King, and it was at that point that I went in and told him what they wanted to do, and he said, "Well they will just have to make it to you, which will be all right." He said, well, you can take the confession. I am going to get up now and get ready for the press conference."

And, of course, they did make that confession, and we talked about, it, and en route to the press conference, he stopped briefly and heard what they had to say.

Of course, we went on to the press conference and, strangely enough, the lion, as I like to call it, in Dr. King came out in his press conference. He was a very courageous man, yet, he was a very meek and humble man, but he would always rise to any occasion, and it was at this point that he really mastered that press conference, as we walked in and said this would not be just an ordinary briefing, but it can be a press conference, it may be on the record or off the record, ask whatever questions you want to ask. He did not use his aide, Reverend Lee, to begin the conference.

He did it all himself. It made me so very proud of him. Once we were back in the room, I just had to express the joy after such a painful night, and he said, "Well, David, what I want you to do now is get me out of Memphis; get me to Atlanta." And of course, we took the first flight available to Atlanta. He wanted me to go with him to the






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health club at the YMCA. I thought it was more important that I go show myself to my wife and let her know that I was still alive and unharmed in spite of what the press may have said. I wanted her to see with her own eyes. So I went home and it was from the health club that he called me.

Mr. MATHEWS. Dr. Abernathy, let me stop you briefly here. Can you relate to us briefly what occurred at the meeting on March 30? Was some decision, made at that point in time to return to Memphis by SCLC staff and Dr. King?

Dr. ABERNATHY. OK, you want me to skip the other?

Mr. MATHEWS. Yes; I do.

Dr. ABERNATHY. Thank you. We decided eventually that we were going to Washington with the poor people's campaign; we were going by the way of Memphis, Tenn. Dr. King was not present at the time that the decision was made. The executive staff, Rev. Hosea Williams, Rev. Jesse Jackson, now Ambassador Andrew Young, myself and Rev. Bernard Lee and just the full executive staff was present when the decision was made.

Since I was the vice president of the organization, they asked me if I would please contact the president -- I knew where he was -- and inform him that they wanted to see him; they wanted to convey to him themselves their feelings.

Of course, I contacted him and finally, he came after about 2 hours. I wanted to tell you how depressed he was. I thought it was important you know that. But I guess you have, that entered in the record some place.

Mr. MATHEWS. Yes, sir.

Dr. ABERNATHY. He was very, terribly depressed; a depression that I had never experienced before and had never seen. He was back in this shell. And, of course, he finally came after about 2 hours, and the staff informed him of their decision to go to Memphis. They gave the outline that he was to preach the next Sunday morning at the Washington Cathedral here and certain staff persons would go to Memphis and been workshopping the people on Sunday, and others would go in on Monday and Dr. King and myself were to come in on Tuesday.

Mr. MATHEWS. So, there came a time, then, on April 3, 1968, when you and Dr. King arrived in Memphis, is that correct?

Dr. ABERNATHY. We didn't go into Memphis until on Wednesday.

Mr. MATHEWS. That was April 3,1968, Wednesday?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Wednesday, that's right.

Mr. MATHEWS. Did you stay at the Lorraine Motel that day?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; we did.

Mr. MATHEWS. That night, did Dr. King give a speech that has now become known as the "mountaintop speech" at the Mason Temple?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Surely, he gave it. As you know, there were tornado warnings in Memphis and a great deal of rain. He had asked me to give the speech that night, but once I got there, I discovered there was a large press and all the television cameras. I knew they wanted to hear what the most peaceful warrior of the 20th century had to say. So, I called him and asked him if he would please come and he assured me he would come and make the speech that evening and, of course, I introduced him and then he made the famous speech, that longevity certainly has its virtues, that every man would like to live a long life,






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but so far as he was concerned, it didn't matter any more. All he wanted to do was to do the will of God because he had been to the mountaintop and he had viewed the promised land from afar and that he might not get there with the people, but eventually one day, his people would get to the promised land and, of course, he closed with, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

It was a marvelous speech. It was a moving speech. Many people thought that he had a premonition or maybe some knowledge which he had received through letter or telephone that something was going to happen.

Mr. MATHEWS. You say many people. You were his closest friend. What do you think?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, think he had received some word.

Mr. MATHEWS. A premonition?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; I just think he had received some word from some source that he was going to be assassinated.

Mr. MATHEWS. But you have no knowledge?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; I have no knowledge.

Mr. MATHEWS. Dr. Abernathy, let me take you directly now to April 4, 1968, the day of the assassination, and the most important aspect of your testimony here today.

Could you describe from approximately 4 o'clock onward the sequence of events that occurred on that day?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, about 4 o'clock, thereabouts, the telephone rang in the room, and I answered the phone and it was Dr. King saying to me:

David, I want you to come down to the room, come down to my brother's room, A. D.'s room. I would like for you to come down and be with us.

David, I wouldn't think of going to Washington without you. We have got to get that revival rescheduled and we must find a preacher.

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Of course, we attempted to call the preacher in New Orleans who could have done the job to my satisfaction, because I didn't have time to promote it. And, of course, the pastor was away with his bishop out in the rural and there was no telephone. Of course, we never did get through on that one.

So then, he turned to me and he said:

Well, if I know that you are the pastor of the greatest church in America, had not you accepted that church, I was going to leave my father and go and pastor to the West Hunter Street Baptist Church.

Those people will do anything you tell them. And I want you to go to the West Hunter Church and tell them that you have a greater revival, you have a revival where you are going to revive the soul of this Nation, where you are going to cause America to feed the hungry, to have concern for those who are downtrodden and disinherited; you have a revival where you are going to cause America to stop denying necessities to the masses only to give luxuries to the classes.

He said, "If you will do that, I'm sure that West Hunter Street Church will understand and we can go ahead with this campaign."

He said, "Give me your promise and give me your word that you will not let me down."

I said, "Well, I will do it. We have been together so far, and there is no need for us to separate now."

And, he said, "Are you ready?" And I said, "Yes," and we put our coats on and we started out of the motel room. Just as we got in the door, I said, "Wait just a moment, let me put on some aftershave lotion," and, of course, he said, "OK, I'll stand right here on the balcony." And, of course, before I could get the lotion up on my face, I heard what sounded like a firecracker.

Naturally, I jumped and, of course, I then looked and I could see only his feet. Had he fallen directly back, he would have fallen right in the room, right in the door, but the bullet was so powerful, it twisted his body and he had fallen in a kind of kitty-cornered fashion and, of course, I rushed out immediately.

I heard the groans of the people in the courtyard who had hit the ground and, of course, I stepped across him because the bullet had entered his right cheek and I patted his left cheek, consoled him and got his attention saying, "This is Ralph, this is Ralph, don't be afraid."

Someone from the Community Relations Service came crawling bringing me a pillow and a blanket. I put it under his head and covered him with it. I stayed with him in the ambulance. I helped put him in the ambulance. I stayed with him in the operating room. I helped to give him the oxygen with the attendant on duty en route to the hospital.

I was there when the physician said to me that it would be a blessing, it would be an act of mercy, if he did pass because the bullet had really entered the cheek and then it had moved and severed his spine and then it had come down in the chest. This is where once they cut the clothing off, there was a hole big enough in his body for me to put both my fists, which I had not seen before until they cut off his clothing, and so forth.

And he said he would be a vegetable had he lived the rest of his life; he would be paralyzed from his neck down. And finally, he came






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over to me and said again that the person who just left was the neurosurgeon.

Of course, he had shaken his head as he walked out. He said, "I doubt that anything will be done." Of course, I went over; I said, if I might go over. He said I could. I went over and that was the end.

It happened 1 hour from the time that he was shot.

Mr. MATHEWS. Mr. Chairman?

Chairman STOKES. Yes.

Mr. MATHEWS. I have no further questions of the witness.

Chairman STOKES. Dr. Abernathy, let me express our appreciation for the testimony you have just given us.

I guess, in a very sobering way, you have helped all of us once again realize the meaning of the life of Dr. King and the civil rights movement in this Nation of which you are one of the great leaders, also.

The committee will now operate under the 5-minute rule and with unanimous consent the Chair would like to out of order recognize the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee, who represents the district in which Dr. King was assassinated, as the first member to question the witness.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Ford.

Mr. FORD. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, Dr. Abernathy, at the outset may I extend my personal welcome to you and express my appreciation for your appearance here today. Unfortunately, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in the city where I was born and raised. The people of the city of Memphis were as much a victim of this shocking American tragedy as was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and with your permission, may I ask a few questions?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes, sir, I will be delighted to answer. May I ask does it mean that you and I have only 5 minutes now?

Mr. FORD. I don't think so.

Chairman STOKES. It means this, Dr. Abernathy: Under the 5-minute rule each member of the committee will have 5 minutes in which to question you, and I have to recognize the next member, and, of course, the committee can at its discretion continue under the 5-minute rule as they so desire, so the member can always come back to you again.

Dr. ABERNATHY. I See.

Mr. FORD. Dr. Abernathy, what was. Dr. King's attitude toward security and police protection?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Dr. King felt very strongly that there was a higher power of security and a greater police power. He really did not rely nor did he trust the police power in this country. He knew that in the Deep South that the sheriffs, who were all white, and the police chiefs, who were all white, and the various majority of the police, who were all white, were against him. He knew that the FBI was against him and could not be trusted. He knew that the CIA was against him and could not be trusted. That is, hotel rooms had been bugged and that he had been under surveillance by the police. So the police and security was looked upon really as an enemy rather than a force of good, and he refused to own a gun or to permit anyone on his staff to carry any guns for his own protection. He felt that the most powerful force in this country, and in the world, is nonviolence and that one could protect himself with nonviolence more effectively than he could with weapons.






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Mr. FORD. Dr. Abernathy, during the period of late 1967 and until his untimely death in 1968, was the life of Dr. Martin Luther King threatened?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Oh, yes; he was constantly threatened. He suffered many, many, many threats; many, many threats in Montgomery, Ala., threats in Atlanta, Ga., and all across the country where he lead movements and where he went to speak. Of course, there were threats. And even on the day, which would have been April 3, we took a plane out of Atlanta, Ga. We sat on this airplane for 1 hour with no explanation from the captain or the pilot or any of the officers or the stewardesses, and finally the pilot said, after an hour:

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to apologize for the delay but today we have a distinguished person on this plane: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We wanted to be very, very careful so we had the plane guarded all night last night and then we checked every piece of luggage in order that we might not have any bombs exploding, because if Dr. King is to be killed, we don't want to be killed also.

or some words to that effect.

So he was constantly getting threats, many of them through the mail, over the telephone, some of it was in person, as in Selma, Ala., a man came up and struck him as he attempted to register at a downtown hotel where no Blacks had ever lived before.

Mr. FORD. To your knowledge, was the Federal Bureau of Investigation aware of these threats?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Oh, yes; they were aware of them. We would report some of them. We did not report all of them because it became very apparent to us that tie FBI had no intention of doing anything about them. You see, so many members of the FBI were Southerners, racist Southerners, white Southerners, and because you take a racist white man and put an FBI badge on him, that does not change their thinking in their heart one bit, it just makes them Federal personnel.

Also we knew Mr. Hoover's attitude, who was then the head of the FBI Department. He had called Dr. King the most notorious liar in the country, and I visited Mr. Hoover and I knew his attitude toward Dr. King, and we would report for the record many of these threats and nothing was done about it. We didn't see any investigations taking place, nonetheless, for the sake of the record we would report some of them.

Chairman STOKES. Time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. FORD. Mr. Chairman. I would ask unanimous consent to proceed for an additional 10 minutes.

Chairman STOKES. Without objection, the gentleman is recognized.

Mr. FORD. Dr. Abernathy, did Dr. King ever allow his own personal safety to interfere with his divine mission to provide equal rights for all people?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; he certainly did not. He was always concerned about equal rights for all people, and his personal safety became secondary. This is not to suggest at all that he wanted to become a martyr. He loved life and he wanted to live but his commitment to the cause of Christ -- this is what I call it, you may call it something else -- his commitment to the American dream, was much more powerful and much more forceful than his own personal safety.

Mr. FORD. What was his position regarding his own personal safety?

Dr. ABERNATHY. 0h, yes; they were aware of them. We would report my battles; that truth crushed to the earth will rise again, and that if






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a man has not discovered something that he is willing to die for, then that man is not fit to live. He also felt that freedom is costly and that there would be no freedom unless there is suffering and sacrifice, but he believed at the very same time that there was power in redemptive suffering.

Mr. FORD. Dr. Abernathy, to your knowledge, did the Memphis Police Department and the Memphis Office of the FBI have any information regarding the many threats made upon the life of Dr. King? The Memphis Office of the FBI and the Memphis Police Department?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Oh, yes, the Memphis Office of the FBI had some knowledge of some of the threats because some threats had been made in Memphis, Tenn., and the police department in Memphis. This is seen very clearly by the fact that each time that we went into Memphis there were two Black detectives who were assigned to us while in the city of Memphis.

Mr. FORD. In view of the plane being searched in Atlanta and the many possible implications arising therefrom, and in view of the Memphis Police Department and the Memphis Office of the FBI being not only aware of the threats on Dr. King's life but also that he was en route to Memphis, what police protection outside of these two police officers was given Dr. King when he arrived in Memphis on April 3, 1968?

Dr. ABERNATHY. None.

Mr. FORD. Having made reference to the FBI, to your knowledge, was Dr. King acquainted with its then Director, J. Edgar Hoover? You made statements Mr. Hoover made in regards to Dr. King. Was Dr. King acquainted with him? Had he ever met with him or talked with him or spoken with him about the threats personally?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Oh, yes; he had met Mr. Hoover and he had talked with Mr. Hoover.

Mr. FORD. Do you have any opinion as to whether or not the FBI through its Director, Mr. Hoover, harassed and thereby attempted to impede the objectives of Dr. King? If so, explain.

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, impede in the sense of seeking to destroy one's morale or esprit de corps or kill one's spirit. I don't know of them seeking to block any march or any demonstration but to impede by bugging our hotel room and sending your wife a tape, which are supposed to have been some activities that may have taken place in your hotel room; to know that you are under surveillance; that there is somebody on every plane that you traveled there with you, naturally this would impede in some way, but I don't know of Mr. Hoover or the FBI standing in our way anywhere where a march was concerned or preventing us from going to jail if we sought to violate a law that we considered to be an unjust law.

Mr. FORD. Did you or your staff have any information which might lead you to believe that the Director, Mr. Hoover, was communicating orders pertaining to Dr. King directly, verbally, and unofficially into the Memphis area prior to the April 4 assassination?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; I do not have any information on that.

Mr. FORD. Dr. Abernathy --

Chairman STOKES. Time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. FORD. One last final question, Mr. Chairman.

Dr. Abernathy, prior to Dr. King's coming to Memphis and indeed at any time before his assassination, did you, or to your knowledge






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Dr. King, or anyone on his staff. know that the official in charge of the Memphis Police Department was a former FBI agent who served 8 of his 25 Years with the Bureau as inspector in charge of the personal office -- and I repeat, sir -- in the personal office of Mr. Hoover, the Director of the FBI?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; we did not know that.

Chairman STOKES. Time of the gentleman has expired. The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Devine.

Mr. DEVINE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I hope from the questioning thus far that this doesn't turn into a trial of the FBI rather than trying to fulfill the mandate of the Congress to determine whether or not Mr. Ray was alone, or whether as the person charged with having committed this offense, was involved in a conspiracy. That is the objective.

Dr. Abernathy, we appreciate your being here this morning, and in connection with your earlier testimony about being in the room that you apparently shared with Dr. King and putting the face lotion on as he went onto the balcony, you heard what you thought was a firecracker.

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes.

Mr. DEVINE. Do you know who was on the balcony with him at that time?

Dr. ABERNATHY. There was nobody on the balcony with him.

Mr. DEVINE. Was he alone and in front of the door of the room that you were occupying?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; he was alone.

Mr. DEVINE. And you emerged when you heard the noise and Dr. King had fallen? I believe you said his body twisted slightly around the corner of the room there, in the area way?

Do you know who was immediately below in the parking lot looking up toward where Dr. King was?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; there were several persons, many persons in the courtyard just below.

Mr. DEVINE. Any specifically that you can identify?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Rev. Solomon Jones, the driver, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Mr. Ben Branch, Ambassador Andrew Young, Rev. Bernard Scott Lee. These were all staff members of SCLC. Representative Hosea Williams, State representative.

Mr. DEVINE. I know that vast confusion occurred immediately following this tragic event. Do you recall any of the persons down there pointing in any direction saying "The shot came from here," or anything like that?

Dr. ABERNATHY. No; the first thing that happened, once I heard the sound of what I thought was something, like a firecracker. I looked and saw only his feet, and I rushed out. Everybody hit the ground, Mr. Congressman, taking refuge, because they thought the place was being shot up, somebody was shooting into the crowd, but this was immaterial to me, and I was concerned about my friend, my buddy, so while they were on the ground they stayed there until, you know, considerable time and, of course, the first person to get up to where we were was the Rev. Billy Kyles, to whose home we were going for dinner. He had come to be with us, to go with us.






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Mr. DEVINE. But you heard no more than one shot or one firecracker sound?

Dr. ABERNATHY. That is right, only one. And then Rev. Andrew Young was the second person who came up. Rev. Bernard Lee was the next person, and then Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Hosea Williams, and they began to pick out where they thought the shot came from, and this is where the pointing -- you may have seen a picture where they are standing pointing and I am down on the floor with Dr. King.

Mr. DEVINE. Do you recall in which direction they were pointing?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Well, I can't get the geography of Memphis. They were pointing away from the motel across the street.

Mr. DEVINE. Directly away from the balcony on which Dr. King had been standing?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes.

Mr. DEVINE. And do you knew whether that direction happens to be the roominghouse, that has since been publicized about this incident?

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; that was the roominghouse.

Mr. DEVINE. Are you acquainted with the crime scene map that rests here to your left against the wall? Can you identify any portion thereof? [1]

Dr. ABERNATHY. No.

Mr. DEVINE. The blue in the middle being the swimming pool that your balcony overlooked.

Dr. ABERNATHY. This is the first time I have seen that map.

Mr. DEVINE. Perhaps later we can identify it in more detail.

You said following Dr. King's speech, which was outstanding, about looking over the mountain and so forth, that he came back and he said to the effect "Now get me out of Memphis." Where were you going?

Dr. ABERNATHY. To Atlanta.

Mr. DEVINE. To Atlanta?

Dr. ABERNATHY. To our homes.

Mr. DEVINE. And you also said this: "I think he had received some word from sources that he would be assassinated."

Now, on what do you base that thought, that assumption. You said, "I think he had received some word from sources that he would be assassinated." That is what you said directly in response to Mr. Mathew's questioning.

Dr. ABERNATHY. Yes; I base it, Congressman, on his attitude. I had just returned from a trip around the world and Dr. King became -- he was altogether a different individual; he was troubled; he was worried; he was nervous and very, very jittery. We went on a vacation down in Acapulco, Mexico, to get some rest before we started the organizing of the poor people's campaign. He began to do what he had never did, and that was to pass on to me certain information that he wanted me to have. He repreached the sermon that he preached in his own church, "A Drum Major for Justice," where he really talks about his death, his funeral, and said if anybody is around, I don't want a long funeral, don't mention the fact that I hold a Ph. D. degree, and some 18 or 20 other doctorate degrees, don't mention the fact that I hold a Nobel Peace Prize, just say that I tried to help somebody, I wanted to be a drum major for justice and equality. He


[1] See infra

Ralph, it may be that those of us who adhere to nonviolence should just step aside and let the violent forces run their course, which will be very temporary and would be very brief, because you can't conduct a violent campaign in this country.