Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President-elect Donald Trump crossed paths at the beginning of 2025. Trump was inaugurated on MLK Day 2025.
As the second half of the year progressed, their paths crossed again. This time, however, it is due to Trump’s decision to release long-classified FBI files on MLK.
And Black Houstonians are none too happy about it. Many of them see the move as a distraction to divert public attention away from the conversation and the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Epstein files are believed to contain a who’s who list of individuals who participated in Epstein’s illegal sexual encounters (rapes) of underage girls.
Trump promised his supporters he would make the release of the Epstein files one of his top priorities, as he alleged. Those supporters believe the list of Epstein’s guests includes politicians and entertainers who are Democrats and/or liberals. According to several reports, Trump was told in May by Department of Justice officials that his name appeared several times in some of the Epstein documents.
Trump’s move to avoid releasing the Epstein files has many of his most loyal and vocal supporters upset, and making the loudest demands for the Epstein files to be made public.
As their cries grew louder, files were finally released–not Epstein’s, but MLK’s.
Black Houston speaks
To Johnny Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Church, Trump’s move is not surprising.
“It has been well documented that [Trump] had a longstanding relationship with Epstein,” said Ogletree. “He knows his base will immerse itself in baseless conspiracy theories. In that, he’s confident that he can distract them by dangling another topic before them to consume.”
“I believe Trump is offering up the legacy and reputations of Dr. King and also President Obama in an effort to shift the attention from his conduct and true character,” Ogletree added, in reference to the release of the MLK files and recent comments by Trump accusing former President Obama of treason. “I believe he has chosen two African American leaders because he needs to stir up the energy that helped him obtain office twice; that being racism,” Ogletree said.
Dr. Charles Turner, pastor of New Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, views Trump’s release of MLK’s files as an attack meant to distract and to hurt not just MLK, but Black people.
“Trump releasing the MLK files is a continuation of anti-Blackness consistent with white supremacist ideology,” said Turner. “While not solely a measure used to steer attention away from the Epstein files, it certainly is a factor.”
Turner, however, believes that whatever Trump’s intention, the release of the MLK files will not have the desired effect.
“Trump is the one [of the three] who is still alive and in the most visible position in the world, so whoever thought it was a good idea will be thoroughly disappointed,” said Turner.
Houston Area Urban League head Judson Robinson III views Trump’s latest action as part of Trump’s standard operating procedure.
“I think this administration continues to try and distort truths, destabilize communities and rewrite commonly known and accepted truths,” said Robinson. “This is another attempt to distract people, deflect attention from things that really matter, and destabilize our foundations of pride in our Black history.”
Other local voices were even more to the point.
“It’s a distraction from Epstein and everything else that he is likely pushing through Congress,” said Chris Jones. “It’s also looking like [Trump] could be in the files. It would be interesting to hear what Ghislaine Maxwell [Epstein’s accomplice and chief recruiter of underage girls] says if she is allowed to testify before Congress.
“It was meant to distract from the fact that [Trump] was probably one of Epstein’s biggest clients,” said Imani Karega.
Chad King contends the MLK files release was “a distraction to the distraction.”
“Our primary focus should be the large bill that passed and its impact,” said King. “The distraction is the Epstein files. The distraction to the distraction is the MLK files.”
Like Ogletree and Turner, local musician Mike Meade sees the Trump move as bigger than just a “banana in the tailpipe.”
“I don’t think it’s just a distraction. I think this was planned as an attempt to destroy our biggest Black heroes, just like he did when he fired Black generals and tried to erase the Tuskegee Airmen and other iconic Black history from the White House and other federal buildings,” said Meade, an alum of Willowridge High School and the University of Houston.
Dr. Abdul Haleem Muhammad, Student Minister of Muhammad Mosque No. 45 in Houston, holds that same position.
“The release of the MLK files is ultimately designed to sully Dr. King’s reputation by introducing the hate-filled results of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI surveillance and dirty tricks aimed at preventing ‘the rise of a Messiah’ that would electrify and unify our movement for human rights and dignity.”
Files released
Earlier this week, the FBI released more than 240,000 pages that contain information about the FBI’s investigation into MLK’s assassination and transcripts of wiretaps and electronic surveillance on MLK conducted by the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). That surveillance revealed an affair MLK had.
However, David Garrow, a historian and author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of King, asserts one would have to be well-versed in FBI lingo and codes to decipher the information.
“You have to know FBI numerical serialization practices to even understand what you’re looking at,” Garrow said about the documents. “It’s almost akin to learning a foreign language.”
But what is at issue with many Black people in Houston is the question of why the files were released, and why now, especially when MLK’s family is against such a release.
MLK’s children
King’s living children, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, said in a joint statement posted on Twitter:
During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While we support transparency and historical accountability, we object to any attacks on our father’s legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods. Those who promote the fruit of the FBI’s surveillance will unknowingly align themselves with an ongoing campaign to degrade our father and the Civil Rights Movement.
MLK’s niece, staunch conservative Alveda King, said she was “grateful to President Trump” for his “transparency” on the matter.
Impact
Ogletree is confident that MLK’s legacy will remain intact, even with the release of the files.“There has only been one person to walk the earth who is without sin,” said Ogletree. “Our heroes are human beings, not perfect people. However, if the Epstein files are released, Trump is going to find a great challenge in that he has measured and judged his predecessors and peers with a scale that is void of grace and mercy.
“The effort of Dr King will always be respected and appreciated. He lost his life fighting for others.”
