But, since then, MLK jr's ties to Communism have been exposed, as well as the New Left, which eventually hijacked the Democrat Party.
Of course, the people who were 'rejecting' communism were publicly rejecting communism. They'd have been run off otherwise.
But, by their fruits ye shall know them.
After all, "Communism is dead", was a later mantra, but it has never been so alive, nor allowed (encouraged?) to proceed at such a pace as it has once it was declared no longer a threat.
Pray tell, why does the Communist mass murderer Che still adorn the T-shirts, posters, and banners of the Left?
The sanitized version of the Civil Rights battle was that it was over Civil Rights. While that was a legitimate cause, the eventuality was widespread civil unrest in times of war, not just at home, but among some of our troops as well. The effect was the disruption, not of old ways which needed to change, but the social fabric of Black culture in America, which coupled with concessions like LBJ's "great society" doomed the black family to decay (not all, but statistically speaking). That was one of the Communist goals from 1963, to disrupt the family as the basic social unit and by doing so disrupt continuity of culture in America. It worked marvelously well, as did the later KGB seed money to some environmental organizations for the (ulterior) purpose of disrupting Western Industry. That worked well, also, and turned out to be a tremendous investment--one which has paid dividends in Asia.
Every Communist act of subterfuge has a bright and shiny face in front, a prima facie cause all can rally for, be it clean air, clean water, safer streets, better food, whatever, but the means of achieving those alleged goals, the things which bring in the 'true believers' as a front, often end up being totalitarian or overly statist in nature.
Safer highways have been touted, and now we have laws to require you under threat of penalty to wear a seat belt, we have DUI checkpoints which search and seize at random, and the excuse for maintaining those onerous programs is that despite the continued slaughter, 'it would have been so much worse...'.
Hoover wasn't beyond taking extraConstitutional actions to retain his grip on power, either, so I am not enthusiastic about using him as an authoritative source.
Consider someone quoting the DOJ or DHS comments of today in reference to the TEA Party or the Christian right of today in 50 years, and you will have my perspective on J Edgar as a source.
Smokin: You are confusing and conflating two different issues. Nobody disputes that some prominent civil rights activists had connections to individuals who were Communist Party members or sympathizers. But what FBI investigative files reveal is the inability of the CPUSA to influence or control our civil rights leaders and their organizations.
Nor is that merely a conclusion reached by the FBI. The House Committee on Un-American Activities also reached the same conclusion.
MLK Jr’s “ties to communism” were very minor. His religious values and beliefs made it impossible for him to accept Communist Party ideology or discipline. No serious student of MLK Jr believes otherwise. It is true, however, that MLK Jr. accepted Marxist economic theory (i.e. he thought that Marxist analysis of capitalist systems had a lot of worthwhile ideas which should be acknowledged) but, once again, King’s religious values precluded his acceptance of any Party dogma regarding the need for revolutionary violence OR for creation of a Negro Soviet Republic in our southern states. MLK did not want a separate black entity within the United States (as was the prevailing Communist doctrine); he wanted full integration of blacks into American society — all of which was to be accomplished through persuasion and enforcement of equal protection laws.
With respect to your question re: “Che” — most of the radicals who admire Che do so for reasons unrelated to “murder” or “revolution”. Resistance to injustice is a value which is shared by many individuals regardless of their religious or political or economic viewpoints.
Lastly, I suggest you review FBI investigative files regarding our national civil rights organizations and, in particular, the comments made at secret, closed meetings of senior Communist Party officials at their HQ in New York City as well as the Party’s state leadership. You will discover very quickly that the Party DESPISED most of our civil rights leaders.
For more details see the chapter of my online report which discusses the falsehoods circulated by the JBS re: our civil rights movement and its leaders. I incorporated into that chapter very detailed excerpts from FBI investigative files-—including comments made at CPUSA National Executive Committee meetings.
https://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-3