NEWS: FOIA'd FBI Files on Aretha Franklin Show Repeated Suspicion of the Famed Black Singer, Her Work, and Activists Around Her
It took 4 years to get these documents...
NEWS from Jenn: Years ago, I FOIA'd FBI files on Aretha Franklin. Today, I received the files. While incomplete, they show repeated and disgusting suspicion of the famed Black singer, her work, and activists around her.
(NOTE: This was originally a Twitter thread and is laid out here for easier reading. There is a full story coming, but for now, these “tweets” are pasted here as they were originally written, with Twitter character limits in mind.)
Here’s what I found in the FBI files:
1976: document states that a "west coast communist newspaper" carried a story that The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis raised $38,000 and that Aretha Franklin sang at the event. Further, they claimed Franklin was associated with other "Black extremists" and groups.
Jenn Dize's Courage News can't grow without you, and I REALLY need your support to keep reporting! Hit SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW today for free to support independent media. UPGRADE if you can to keep the lights on.
1967/Declassified 2022: MLK's Southern SCLC 10th anniversary discussed on document titled "COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE INTERNAL SECURITY." Noting: "Sidney Poitier...and Aretha Franklin, popular entertainer, will also appear at the banquet."
1968: discusses SCLC labeling US treatment of Vietnamese as genocide. FBI source discusses Aretha Franklin's father & also said, "SCLC leadership has taken a 'hate America and 'pro communist' line, which the mass of Negroes will not recognize but which they will blindly follow."
1971: Aretha Franklin's every move is carefully documented by the FBI. In this document, just now declassified, direct contact information and details of her Atlantic Records contract are discussed - presumably "just in case."
1972: The FBI placed a false phone call using "suitable pretext" to determine who the recipient was of a phone call from the Black Panther Party. It was determined that the call was made to Aretha Franklin. The FBI described her as a "noted Negro singer and entertainer."
1969: In a document "excluded from automatic downgrading and classification," an unrelated disruption at a 1968 Aretha Franklin concert was swept into discussions of "possible racial violence/major urban areas/racial matters."
1968: Document discusses funeral plans for MLK, calling it a "racial situation." It states, "source advises Atlanta Braves, Inc. had donated Atlanta Stadium to SCLC for huge memorial concert...Above entertainers were to perform as were (cont'd)
(cont'd) "Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin...Of this group, some have supported militant Black power concept...[performance at MLK memorial by these prominent entertainers] would provide emotional spark which could ignite racial disturbance in this area."
1966: The FBI frequently had sources and infiltrators feeding them very specific information from within the civil rights movement. Here's an example from these Aretha Franklin files.
1973: There were frequent attempts to connect Aretha Franklin & other notable Black figures to anything they deemed nefarious. This FBI doc follows up on claim that she was connected to the Black Liberation Army/any "radical" movement. The finding was that there was no evidence.
1985: It's important to note that many documents in these files are missing or remain heavily redacted. (cont'd)
"The CW [REDACTED] [REDACTED] advised many OC figures own or control entertainers or groups. Some of the groups or entertainers & the people who control them that he is aware of are: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Michael Jackson...[REDACTED] & Aretha Franklin by Stan Hoffman.
1979: Aretha Franklin had some incredibly scary things happen to her. Four months after her father was shot in Detroit, she received a threat from a man who said he was going to kill her and her family. She was threatened many times over her career.
1974: Another example comes in a letter: "Dear Aretha...I'm still in charge of you...I'm not to be crossed...you should be...paying me some of my money...evidently your advisors do not know the dangers of neglecting what I'm saying...I would hate to drag [your father] into this."
Interestingly, the FBI wrote: "the original letter and envelope are being sent to New York rather than submitted for fingerprint and Lab examination...[it's] been handled by numerous persons since received." This (handling) would be the case with any mailed item, so I'm curious.
Potential further info about why was redacted.
On May 9, 1974, an FBI document states that "Cecil Franklin furnished a letter...which was said to contain a threat against...Aretha Franklin...SDNY, [REDACTED], who declined prosecution in this matter, [REDACTED] AUSA [REDACTED] stated additionally, [REDACTED] [REDACTED]."
More to come!
Jenn Dize's Courage News can't grow without you, and I REALLY need your support to keep reporting! Hit SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW today for free to support independent media. UPGRADE if you can to keep the lights on.
~
Jenn Dize
I still find myself surprised at the invasive use of police authority to harass and potentially compromise prominent people of color. Some things never change.
I always find interesting the way the monitoring and investigating of ANY "leftist" organizations or individuals has always been done as if it was a given that being a "leftist" was some kind of crime. These invasive intrusions into peoples privacy and the monitoring of perfectly legal associations and activities are treated as justifiable "police work" and never as a blatantly politically motivated agenda to harass "leftists" and people of color to the benefit of white right wing politics. Very telling.