CIVIL RIGHTS ICON WAS A SPY

Ernest Withers was a revered and respected legend within the civil rights movement.  As a photographer, he captured some of the most important moments and poignant images of the entire civil rights era, including those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the night of his assassination.  But new information has revealed that Ernest Withers was more than just a beloved camera man — he was also a secret informant and spy for J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.

Memphis newspaper The Commercial Appeal, conducted a two-year investigation of public records that proved Withers frequently provided the FBI with details about Dr. King’s activities, including where he was staying and information on his meeting with black militants on April 3, 1968 — the night prior to his assassination.  The FBI had originally classified all names connected with any civil rights investigations, but forgot to include Withers’ name as classified.  The photographer was well trusted and moved freely within Dr. King’s tight inner-circle, taking photographs and selling them to Ebony, Jet and other black magazines.  But Withers’ spying extended well beyond the slain civil rights leader, which, according to the newspaper, “reveal a covert, previously unknown side of the beloved photographer.”  

J. Edgar Hoover was extremely leery of Dr. King and the civil rights movement.  So he kept an extensive file on King and his aides, which created an enormous level of distrust between the movement and the FBI. Civil rights leaders knew their hotel rooms were bugged and were careful about what they said, well aware that federal agents were often listening. They felt like people inside and outside of their organizations were always watching them.

“It was just par for the course,” said Juanita Jones Abernathy, widow of civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy. “They could be in strategy sessions, and the FBI had a way of calling almost immediately after they had made plans for something to inform them of what they had planned to do. They would check into hotels, and the FBI was in the room across the aisle.  But they kept moving.” 

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and himself a civil rights icon, knew Withers well and expressed his disappointment with these new revelations.  “He was very close,” Lowery said of “Ernie,” the nickname they had for Withers. “He was beloved. I’m surprised and I’m a little disappointed.”  But “there was nothing he could report on us that would hurt us,” Lowery continued. “We were not an undercover group. We didn’t have any need to hide. We weren’t planning any ambushes or surprise attacks. We were quite open with what we were planning to do. We publicized it and invited people to join it. He probably knew that as well as anybody.”

Withers died in 2007 but remains iconic within the city of Memphis, where a museum has been named in his honor and is slated to open next month.  However, in light of these new revelations, it will be interesting to see how or if this information will affect Withers’ legacy.