“There is a reason that I require all new agents and analysts to study the FBI’s interaction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to visit his memorial in Washington as part of their training. And there is a reason I keep on my desk a copy of Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s approval of J. Edgar Hoover’s request to wiretap Dr. King. It is a single page. The entire application is five sentences long, it is without fact or substance, and is predicated on the naked assertion that there is “communist influence in the racial situation.””

—  James Comey

The reason I do those things is to ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them.
2010s, Hard Truths: Law Enforcement (2015)

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American lawyer and the seventh director of the Federal Bur… 1960

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“On all levels of life and as each day unfolds, respect for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. grows impressively, and the essence of this respect is the fact that he had deeper insights than most of us have appreciated. It is not mere poetry to call him prophetic.”

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"Martin Luther King, Jr : A Personal Tribute" in Freedomways Vol. 12, No. 1 (1972); also in Freedomways Reader : Prophets in their own Country (2000) By Esther Cooper Jackson and Constance Pohl, p. 378
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By the early 1950's history had endowed him with a sense of the precise moment that Black people were ready for mass action, ready for its risks, and ready for its responsibilities.

Joe Lieberman photo

“I was in Washington in the summer of 1963, [and] had the opportunity to participate in Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington, which culminated at the Lincoln memorial in his soaring 'I Have a Dream' speech. For me, this was America at its best. Hundreds of thousands of us, all religions, races, and nationalities, joined together peacefully but powerfully to petition our government to right the wrong of racial bigotry.”

Joe Lieberman (1942) politician from the United States

Lieberman, In Praise of Public Life, 34, 2000.

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“At the same time, I must personally say that I do question the sincerity and nonviolent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left wing associations.”

Jerry Falwell (1933–2007) American evangelical pastor, televangelist, and conservative political commentator

"Ministers and Marches" sermon (1965), Lynchburg, Virginia, quoted in [2008-08-19, Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority, Bob Moser, New York, Henry Holt, 9780805087710, 16839743M, 173, http://books.google.com/books?id=l8R570Dq60YC&pg=PA173]
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“Cunningham did more for integration in Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King Jr.”

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“Just as Dr. King was a disciple of Gandhi and Christ, we must now be Dr. King's disciples.
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“This accomplishment is a moment of triumph—but not for Martin Luther King Jr., he wouldn’t have cared one way or other, his was a very self-effacing spirit.”

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1980s, A Dream Deferred (1989)
Context: We as Americans memorialize and honor symbols of heroic deeds done on the battlefields of war and violence. So should we honor those cosmic travelers who have given their lives for the struggle for peace and justice. We have thousands of monuments to men at war, at long last we have the opportunity to celebrate the life of a man of peace who was one of our own. This accomplishment is a moment of triumph—but not for Martin Luther King Jr., he wouldn’t have cared one way or other, his was a very self-effacing spirit.

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