Report: Famed Civil Rights Photographer Was Also an FBI Informant
As a trusted ally of the civil rights movement, freelance Memphis, Tenn., photographer Ernest Withers marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and sat in on some sensitive strategy meetings.
Immediately after King was assassinated in 1968, Withers took historic photos of his dispirited aides. He had photographed King himself the day before. But unbeknownst to his civil rights circle, Withers was also an informant for the FBI for at least a couple of years around this time, reports the Memphis Commercial Appeal in a lengthy article based in part on documents obtained from the government.
“It’s something you would expect in the most ruthless, totalitarian regimes,” D’Army Bailey tells the newspaper. A retired Memphis judge and former activist, he himself was scrutinized by the FBI in the 1960s. “Once that trust is shattered, that doesn’t go away,” he says of citzens’ relationship with their government.
Withers died in 2007 at age 85 and can’t defend himself. His children say they knew nothing about his claimed work as an informant.
However, Andrew Young, now 78, who was one of King’s trusted associates, says Withers was a great photographer who did a lot for the civil rights movement, which had nothing to hide. And, he says, “I don’t think Dr. King would have minded him making a little money on the side.”
Another Commercial Appeal page provides links to documents and other material related to its article on Withers.
