Do blacks know or want the facts?

Sen. Ted Kennedy drew roars of approval at Coretta's funeral when he invoked the 1960 phone call placed by his brother, then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, to Coretta King to pledge his help in freeing her husband from jail. Kennedy also mentioned the call placed by another brother, Robert F. Kennedy, JFK's campaign manager, to a local judge to inquire why Martin Luther King, Jr., could not post bond. King was freed the next morning, according to Kennedy

The sanctuary burst into applause when Sen. Kennedy said, "Robert called the judge!"

He omitted the "Robert called J. Edgar!" part of the story.

More than a few observers of the politically charged, partisan funeral service noted that Kennedy failed to tell the whole story about the relationship between President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

It was the Kennedy brothers who authorized the wiretaps and surveillance of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time, according to historians, King was meeting with members of the American Communist Party, which greatly distressed the Kennedy brothers.

While the Democrat Party continues to claim it was the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who conducted the eavesdropping on Dr. King, Justice Department records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Hoover was ordered by Robert Kennedy to conduct the surveillance operation.

The records indicate that Robert found wiretaps and electronic listen devices or "bugs" useful in Justice Department operations against the Teamsters Union, organized crime and suspected communists. Prior to assisting his brother, John, Robert worked as an aide to Senator Joe McCarthy during the notorious hunt for communists within the US Government. He was also a close associate of the demonized Roy Cohn.

According to conversations this writer has had with a top FBI agent from the Kennedy era, Robert Kennedy took an active role in covert operations which angered Hoover. The late Special Agent Bill Roemer told this writer of the times that agents listened to King's trysts in disgust, some of them even voicing objections to the intrusive "bugging" of King's hotel rooms.