ad — Sti (ro4-10136-10401 so — : 9 June 1965 - MEMORANDUM FOR _: Chief, Security Research Staff SUBJECT : ' . Conversation with 8 June 1965, : Washington, D.C.) 1. On 8 June 1965, the writer met with(Mr. Kennedy at/ the Hilton Hotel, Washington, and had a long discussion with him beginning at’ approxi- mately 1:15 and ending at 5 pem. ‘| | comments covered a wide range of matters, but basically they can be broken down into 3 main topics; (a) His attitude towards the FBI; “(c) Comments on the Negro Civil Rights Movement, the various personalities connected with it, and some of!Mr. Kennedy's: opinions and theories regarding future events connected with the Civil Rights Movement. Fach of the above will be discussed separately. ' Mr. Kennedy's attitude towards the FBI 2. Sometime back, Chief, SRS, decided that it would be advantageous to have| | give information, particularly regarding the Civil Rights Movement, to agents of the FBI in New York City, particularly if this infor- mation concerned domestic or local events and activities. Chief, SRS, felt that_it would be a faster means of communication than heretofore used where- in| | communicated with SRS officers who, in turn, passed the in- formation to either the FBI or areas where it was useful. 36 | |made it very clear that he did not wish to commini- cate with FBI agents, that the Civil Rights Movement should be regarded as an international situation because of the Communist directed infiltration into the movement, and that he felt in some respects that he was being "downgraded" by being pues nary by the FBI and not in a higher echelon. ied Et SECRET od {fo evs meaner tet ws fe nd Cromer ere men tenes ee ey x cere tte eee ~
of Government. While | did not absolutely refuse to cooperate with the Bureau, he made it obvious that only if there was a matter which ' he felt was of interest directly to the Bureau locally, would he .furnish this type of information; otherwise, he would furnish it as he has done previously or cease altogether. The writer attempted, more or less unsuc-- cessfully, to discuss jurisdiction witht but : | main- tained his position that the matter was not one of jurisdiction for the FBT or any single Government agency, but was one that the Government, including \ CIA, should be interested in; namely, the international Communist efforts ye at corrupting and seizing the Negro Civil Rights Movement. naam NC ee eae th ae eee ne eae te are ee BOT Bae ke ae ee ae Bes can _-2- SECRET
74-90000 . a Civil Rights Movement 9. For background information, it is to be recalled that Mr. ‘ Kennedy has long provided information on the Negro Civil Rights Movement and its various leaders. . : position is one of complete sympathy with the Negro and the Civil Rights Movement, but holds that only through legal means and peaceful means should the Negro aims be accomplished. who is a violent anti-Communist, has been alarmed at the Communist “movement into the Negro Civil Rights field and the Commmist penetration into the various Negro organizations. He has undeniably done everything in his capacity to help the Negro leaders, ‘particularly James FARMER of CORE., SECRET: ~ 3 -
14-00000 ~ It is worth noting for the record that |has been involved with various Negro leaders since as early as 1934; and he has known a number of the leaders, on a very close personal basis, since that time. 10. | | main concern has been that the highly derogatory information, of which he is familiar, concerning Martin Luther KING, Ire, will be exposed to the public by the wrong people and at the wrong time which, in| opinion, will.set the Civil Rights Movement back years and would perhaps give the Communists a chance to either further dis- rupt it or toseize control of the movement. ll. To make certain that this report reflects as accuritely as possible the derogatory information on Martin Iuther-KING, Jr.,; hete are three main categor® s: ~ . - (a) Highly derogatory information on sexual. abnormalities and sexual activities which have taken place within the United States and overseas; (vo) A possible theft of money; and | To further set the background, it should be recalled that several months ago a very serious dispute erupted between Mr. John Edgar HOOVER and Martin Iuther KING, dr. At that time James FARMER, head of CORE, received infor- mation, from an absolutely reliable source, that the FBI had derogatory in- formation on Martin Iuther KING, Jr., that Mr. HOOVER was incensed on attacks on his agents and the integrity of his organization, and that grave possi- bilities existed that Mr. HOOVER would turn loose to the public the derog- atory information which has been presented above. In turn, | | and at approximately the same time, FARMER confronted Martin Iuther KING, Jr. with the facts. It is suf- ficient to say that the matter was hushed up by KING visiting HOOVER. A number of meetings took place between the top Negro leaders and discussions were held as to what to do about the derogatory information, since obviously other individuals would know about it. To date, nothing has been done, and the debate is going on in the top Negro channels at the present time. tc eed ~ he
74-00000 4 11. With this background in mind, the writer asked[ | who were the top Negro leaders and what were their relationships one to another. Whitney YOUNG of the Urban League Roy WILKINS of the NAACP James FARMER of CORE A. Phillip RANDOLPH, veteran Negro v union’ jeader a \ Allan MORRISON, top Negro editor and Journalist in the United States. The other leaders of first magnitude that entered the discussion are Martin Iuther KING, Jr. and Harry BELAFONTE, who has been established clearly as a close and intimate friend of Martin Luther KING, dr. and whose left wing \ background is also known. Some of the lesser Negro leaders will be mentioned later, but those of the greater strength and opposed to KING are YOUNG, WIIKINS, FARMER, RANDOLPH, and MORRISON. ‘replied to the ques- tion of rapport among these leaders by saying flatly that ‘there was no rap- port at all, that all mistrust_and dislike the other, and in certain cases, there was often antagonism. | | stated that the brightest, shrewdest, and cleverest of all was Roy WILKINS, but a man who had no popular or grass roots following. He stated that Whitney YOUNG was a bright Negro, but who had no following whatsoever in the popular sense, but was making a definite play to gain power by seeking to be publicly_connected with important individuals both in the Government and out. | described A. Phillip RANDOLPH as a controversial old man, possibly becoming senile, who was afraid to act for fear of damaging his own reputation and who liked to imagine himself as the "Moses" of the Negro race. RANDOLPH has some popular follow- ing, but he is aloof and has not committed himself as intensely as some of the others. dames FARMER, according to Kennedy, is probably the most sin- cere and devoted of the leaders, but is naive and has a complete capacity for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. FARMER personally is clean and he does, in fact, have the grass roots support of the large organization CORE, which he controls. | insisted that he is law abiding, non-~ violent, and a decent individual, but not too politically intelligent. . hyn ~5- SECRET
14-00000 Oe 12. | statea that for weeks the problem of MartYn Luther _ KING, Jr. has been discussed between these leaders and that all of them are aware of the details. stated that to show the range of con- nections involved here and the sensitive nature of it, he gave the following example. He said that a few days ago, he was in the office of Whitney YOUNG to discuss with him this matter. . stated that for the first 15 minutes or so, YOUNG was constantly bej to the telephone 4nd the conversation was interrupted .° . commented that the first two calls that came in were in- consequential, but he stated that the third.call was from the. . President of the United States. | | Stated that he = listened to two more calls then told YOUNG that either he would have to quit accepting phone calls or Mr. Kennedy would no longer | _ discuss anything with him. Whitney YOUNG then told his secretary to stop the calls, and they discussed the matter. stated that the conversation was basically ‘his attempting to get Whitney YOUNG to come to some agreement with the other leaders on the KING matter by pointing out that Roy WILKINS was in favor -of "dumping" KING, and that he Whitney: YOUNG, hadn't committed himself to anything. [______ ]inaicatea that this conversation was not profitable. 13. Of considerable importance to: | was the following. He was having a conversation with Allan MORRISON, the Negro editor, and MORRISON said to him that he had received confirmation, in exact detail, of the derogatory KING story. Further, that the information had come from Washington from a highly placed official in the Department of Justice, Mr. who had in turn conveyed the information to a Mr. a Negro also attached to the Department. of Justice, who was working in Chicago and who had given it directly to Allan MORRISON. MORRISON stated that he was told that the Washington source had the entire KING file in his office in- cluding photographs and tapes on Martin Iuther KING, Jr. | said he asked MORRISON if he had done anything about this; and, according to MORRISON told him that he called a meeting of the top editors and officials of the Johnson publications (Ebony, etc.) of which he, — MORRISON, is the top editor. According to MORRISON, he told those present the story. After some shocked silence, Mr. JOHNSON said to MORRISON and those present, we cannot publish that; and[————=éd said that MORRISON told Mr. JOHNSON, if we don't publish it, it is going to blow up underneath our noses because it is certain to come out sooner or later. 8 ad dela “2.6 - SECRET.
14-00000 "SECRET As pec! Lh, stated that the details of the KING matter ‘are -definitely known to the editors of the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune, but they will not break the story because they have been asked not to. | |statea presumably by the President. 15. The writer than referred to the thesis that Martin Luther KING, Jr. is moving in a way that is indicative that he is being controlled by the Peking line Comnunists,/ - The writer asked|| what possible action would the Peking line Commu- nists take in the KING matter. | [replied by saying ‘that. it is certain to him that the Commnists, both the Moscow and the Peking types, ' are aware of the Martin Iuther KING, Jr. matter. | |statéd as. far as he could figure out, the Peking Communists would handle KING in one of two ways: - _— (a) We will permit you to remain head of the Negro movement in the United States and you may continue to rise in public ac- claim. The other Negro leaders have no courage and they will not expose you. They are cowards and controlled by the Capitalist leaders of the United States. You will, how-' ever, remember that we know what the story is and you will do what you are told. Or (b) They, themselves, the Peking Communists, will expose KING. and in so doing they will end him, they will everlasting discredit all: the other Negro leaders, and they will then be in a position to disrupt the Negro movement, cause chaos and trouble, and possibly gain control of it. If they ex- pose KING, they will say to the Press and public media which they control to the Negro people, that yow leaders have be- trayed you, they knew this story of KING all along and were cowardly. They obeyed instructions from their capitalist leaders. 16. | |stated that he is absolutely convinced that the Peking line Commnists are moving ahead of the Moscow Commmists, both in the world area and in the domestic scene. He pointed out stated that there are other indications of the Peking line Communists show- ing strength, and that there are a number of ways this can be demonstrated. He called attention to the fact that for the last 3 or 4 weeks there has been a period of inaction and that none of the Negro leaders, except James FARMER -~7-
14-00000 of CORB, have been doing anything when they should have been strongiy active. [__—s—=éds tates that it is his opinion that this is due to the movement being held in check by Peking line Communists who are demonstrating and consolidating their strength. He stated further that the “deacons” are nothing more than small ad hoc groups which the Peking line Communists have set up as needed and are, in fact, riding on the back of CORE. stated that they are not CORE groups, but are activist Negro advocates of violence and who are working to disrupt and smear CORE and its leadership. They are constantly working to convert CORE from a non-violent group into an action group which would, of course, put CORE in the Peking line. 17. The writer asked’ iif there was any inai@ation that he knew. of that. would show.that. the Negro leaders-~YQ IS , FARMER, . RANDOLPH or MORRISON--were going to expose KING. a re that there is no such information, that none of them wanted to be responsible for the exposure, nor could they agree among themselves to do it as a group. MORRISON, himself, according td would like to expose the situation, but he could not do this alone and unsupported. stated again, as he had many times previously, that unless this exposure comes from the Negro leaders themselves, the attacks on KING will be useless and will end up only making him Perhaps a martyr: and would set back the Negro Civil Rights Movement for years 18. Toward the end of the conversation, pointed out that any examination of the Civil. Rights Movement, at the present time, would show a clear and concise picture of Communist penetration and activities, namely, from the Peking line Communists... said it is well to note that the war in Vietnam has now been linked to the Civil Rights Movement and, gradually, the two unrelated areas are being blended together in an all out Communist Party line attack on U.S. policy. | istated that this has spread confusion into the Negro Civil Rights Movement and has duped many of the leaders of the movement and caused them to make utterances which are stupid and certainly unpatriotic. referred to the activities and statements of A. Phillip } RANDOLPH in behalf of the "Refusal . to Fight" move- ment. 19. | further said that the aims of the Communists were clear in that they wanted to link the Negro leadership and the Negro mass Civil Rights Movement into a position of anti-government action, and that the Peking line would be away from the Moscow "peaceful coexistence line”, and would be continuous agitation for violent action and disruption. He stated that so called leaders like Martin Luther KING, Jr. and Harry BELA- FONTE have very clearly started blending the Negro Civil Rights Movement into Piya ey tsa Mad te eo vECRET
14-00000 [ CA Pry CD et) ~— a merger with their attacks on the government policy in Vietnam and, even to a lesser degree, into attacks on government policy in the Dominican Republic. | predicted that more and more of this will appear as the. summer goes along. He stated that among the most important leaders of the movement, he felt that only Allan MORRISON had a thorough understanding of the problen, that FARMER in a vague way understood the problem, but was not acute enough to clearly understand it and combat it. He said WILKINS and Whitney YOUNG probably understood this matter, but they are too busy attempting to create a good image of themselves in the public eye to be willing to get down and fight this penetration in an all out manner. : 20. | | stated that he would be continuously ir touch with either Chief, SRS or the writer as he obtained information of interést. \ vA ba. pablo by [| bod) Wad — SECRET, -~ 9 -