The Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968. | Source: Ebet Roberts / Getty
One of the cousins of Coretta Scott King, wife of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has been in the news lately for joining in on the pointed criticism of the new sculpture erected in Boston that is dedicated to and supposed to represent the iconic married couple’s love. But some of Seneca Scott’s subsequent comments in relation to the sculpture, including his views on how Dr. King was killed, seem to have flown under the mainstream media radar.
While being interviewed Monday night by Tucker Carlson on Fox News, Seneca Scott was asked to expound on his opinion of “The Embrace,” the sculpture that was unveiled on Friday ahead of the Martin Luther King Day federal holiday.
By the time the interview was conducted, Seneca Scott — the founder and director of Neighbors Together Oakland and former mayoral candidate in the northern California city — had already written in Compact Magazine that he found the sculpture to be “a masturbatory metal homage” and “a big bronze penis statue that’s supposed to represent black love at its purest and most devotional” in a column that was published on Saturday.
“The Embrace,” the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial sculpture at Boston Common. | Source: Boston Globe / Getty
But when Carlson asked him what the sculpture was all about, Seneca Scott quickly took the interview in a different direction.
After calling the sculpture a “product of the woke algorithm that has gone awry” and noting “a consensus that the statue is a monstrosity and insult to the family,” Seneca Scott placed a spotlight on the consequences of what he called Dr. King’s “radical vision,” which he said was important to keep in focus.
It was in that context that Seneca Scott said that King “was assassinated by the U.S. government,” a point that Carlson did not dispute.
Of course, Seneca Scott’s insistence that James Earl Ray — the man convicted of assassinating King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee — did not act alone is not a unique position.
In fact, it’s often forgotten that a Memphis jury found the United States government guilty of conspiring to assassinate Dr. King.
After four weeks of testimony and more than 70 witnesses in a civil trial in Memphis, 12 jurors reached a swift unanimous verdict Dec. 8, 1999, that Dr. King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, the NY Times reported at the time.
The King family, who filed the civil suit, was awarded $100. They donated the minuscule amount to charity.
Kirsten West Savali reported for NewsOne on the topic in 2014:
Loyd Jowers, owner of Jim’s Grill, which was close to the Lorraine Motel, claimed that the shot which killed Dr. King was fired from behind his restaurant, and that local, state and federal U.S. government agencies, and the Mafia, were all involved. James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating King, was renting a room above Jower’s establishment and was allegedly an unwitting scapegoat.
The restaurant owner named Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark as Dr. King’s assassin, according to a press conference transcript. A claim that would later be called into question along with other shocking details.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, which painstakingly attempted to dismantle Jowers’ claims and the mountain of evidence presented in the Memphis trial, Jowers insisted that “…a Memphis produce dealer, who was involved with the Mafia, gave [Jowers] $100,000 to hire an assassin and assured him that the police would not be at the scene of the shooting. Jowers also reported that he hired a hit man to shoot Dr. King from behind Jim’s Grill and received the murder weapon prior to the killing from someone with a name sounding like Raoul. Jowers further maintained that [James Earl] Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that he did not believe Ray knowingly participated in the conspiracy.”
Prior to King’s death, the FBI investigated his behaviors and sought to turn his following against him.
In 2014, the New York Times published an uncensored version of a letter that the FBI had sent to Dr. King, the famous “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered in August of 1963. The agency hinted at its plan to release details about King’s sexual history in an effort to denounce him as a “King” and a “doctor.”
In addition to the letter’s publication, a report was also released exposing just how committed the FBI (and its former director, J. Edgar Hoover) was to ruining the civil rights leader’s reputation, having had him under surveillance for some time. Hoover’s involvement seemed personal and was sparked by his belief that Dr. King was a Communist sympathizer. After determining that was inaccurate, Hoover still approved continued FBI harassment of Dr. King.
In the letter, which was sent to his home along with recordings of his interludes with other women, the FBI used monikers like “colossal fraud” and “evil abnormal beast” to describe King, saying that “there is but one way out for you” with hopes of coercing him into committing suicide. Although the missive was unsigned, Dr. King and his team correctly deduced that it was from the FBI.
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
5 Facts About The Assassination Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
How Conservatives Have Weaponized Martin Luther King’s Words On Race Over The Years
