The Post Office Secretly Spied on MLK and Civil Rights Leaders
The U.S. Post Office ran a secret surveillance program that tracked civil rights leaders by opening their mail, photographing correspondence, and building dossiers on activists. From 1952 to 1973, the CIA examined 28 million letters under operation HTLINGUAL. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and countless others had their private correspondence monitored. This is how everyday infrastructure became a weapon against the movement for equality.
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Sources:
Church Committee Reports (1975-1976), United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
CIA HTLINGUAL Documents, Freedom of Information Act releases
The FBI and Martin Luther King Jr. by David Garrow
FBI COINTELPRO files, National Archives
U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Mail Covers Program audit reports (2014)
Washington Post reporting on mail surveillance programs (2024)
New York Times investigations into COINTELPRO and Church Committee findings
Stanford University Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers reports on mail cover surveillance
Congressional testimony and reports on Postal Inspection Service programs