King's FBI files may be opened to public

U.S. Sen. John Kerry plans to introduce legislation next week that would pave the way for the release of thousands of FBI documents on the life and death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The bill calls for creating a Martin Luther King Records Collection at the National Archives that would include all government records related to King. The bill also would create a five-member independent review board that would identify and make public all documents from agencies including the FBI - just as a review board in 1992 made public documents related to the 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination. Hank Klibanoff, managing editor of The Civil Rights Cold Case Project, believes Kerry's idea should be expanded to include the release of documents involving not only King's assassination, but also other racial slayings from the civil rights era.