MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: HIS PERSONAL CONDUCT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M00165A002000020010-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: December 21, 1964
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2010/09/08: CIA-RDP80M00165AO02000020010-0
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
iz Reply, Please Refer to
File No.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.:
HIS PERSONAL CONDUCT
December 21, 1964
Confidential sources who have furnished reliable
information in the past have advised that Martin Luther
King, Jr., has the reputation among many of the country's
Negro leaders of being a heavy consumer of alcoholic
beverages and is known to certain Negro leaders to be
extremely loose in his moral behavior. As an example,
these sources cited an incident which occurred several
years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, when King attended a Negro
Baptist Convention: With King's knowledge, some of the
ministers arranged to rent, from some families, apartments.
at a housing project. The permanent tenants were advised
that the apartments were needed for "raeditation.11 Actually,
they were used for sex and drinking parties. These sources
heard from other individuals, whom they believed to be
reliable, that during the Convention King became so intoxi-
cated that he caused a scene in the housing project, being
unable to find the apartment he desired. Some of his
colleagues had to physically restrain King lest he be
recognized by some of the tenants and thus jeopardize the
image of the ministers as well as that of the desegregation.
movement.
Bayard Rustin, in discussing King's recent trip
to Oslo, Norway, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, advised
two acquaintances on December 16, 1964, that he was called
by the police at 4:30 a.m. one morning because the police
had caught a prostitute coming out of the room of A. D. King,
Martin's brother. A. D. King attempted to evade the police
by running into Martin's room. The police accused the
prostitute of stealing money; however, she claimed she had
been paid by the occupant of A. D. King's room. Rustin
claimed that he talked the police out of arresting the
prostitute in order to avoid besmirching the reputation of
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Martin Luther King, Jr.:
His Personal Conduct
were bringing white prostitutes into their rooms.
Bayard Rustin, one of King's key advisors, is-
a former member of the Young Communist League, which has
Martin Luther King, Jr. Rustin also stated that members
of King's entourage had naked girls running up and dowry
the corridors of the hotel where they stayed and that they
been designa
Order 10450.
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