For 30 years, from PBS s
Eyes on the Prize through last year s
Mr. Soul!, Sam Pollard has been one of the most important documentarians of the civil rights struggle. His latest,
MLK/FBI, may be his most challenging yet, because it runs into that thorniest of challenges. It s that old adage: Consider the source.
From 1963 to 1968, the Federal Bureau of Investigations wiretapped and bugged Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. At first, the trigger was a growing concern about his closeness with Stanley Levinson, who the FBI feared was a Communist and potential Russian agent. Over time, the bugging became about King and became weaponized, playing into old paranoias about Black sexuality, even leaked in an attempt to wreck his marriage and push him to suicide.
We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. MLK/FBI Director Sam Pollard on Exploring a 50-Year-Old Conspiracy
In his new doc, declassified documents tell the story of Dr King s harassment at the hands of the FBI Dogwoof
The hour in which documentarian Sam Pollard jumps on Zoom with Esquire turns out to be a thrillingly and misleadingly upbeat sliver of time. Democrat Raphael Warnock has won his Senate run-off and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff looks very likely to follow him. Wow, says Pollard in New York. Well, now Mitch McConnell will really get nervous. But imagine today, with this certification thing in Congress…