JER

John Avery Emison, Martin Luther King Congressional Cover-Up, The: The Railroading of James Earl Ray. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., 2014.

The assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, has its various storylines that continue to this day. The recently disclosed 1964 FBI letter to King manifests the establishment’s disdain for King and its attempt to relegate him to a minor role, or none at all, in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the mid-1960s.

The enigmatic role King played and plays in American political lore is dwarfed by the convincing thesis of Emison’s book. The book’s real value is not what it reveals about the assassination of King and his alleged assassin James Earl Ray, but what it reveals about the United States Government. The book blows asunder the myth that this is a government based upon the consent of the governed and constrained by the constitutional rule of law.

Emison’s thesis is that the assassination of King “was  not a crime of passion or racial hatred. It was a professional assassination—a political crime that was carefully weighed, carefully planned, professionally carried out, and then craftily covered up by pinning the crime on an unlucky criminal.”(35) This is a very serious thesis with profound implications.

Of course such a thesis could easily be dismissed as another conspiracy theory based upon half-truths and concocted evidence. Such a dismissal would be a gross error for two reasons. First, it fails to give Emison his day in court, that is to present the richly detailed evidence that supports his thesis. And second, to expose and address the frauds that have been and are being perpetrated on the American people. This would include the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, George Wallace, and perhaps countless other potential leaders meeting their fate through accidental deaths disdained by the same ruling class that targeted King.

One should not be misled by the title’s Congressional Cover-Up. Yes, the Congressional investigation was a sham, but more than that. Emison’s research reveals to the careful reader the extensive reach and strangulatory powers of the ruling class’ tentacles.

In conclusion, this book should be read not out of any sympathy for James Earl Ray, but out of empathy for self-government. Once read, the template for questioning the official U.S. Government report on anything will be reinforced. And that’s a good reason for reading the book, a very good reason.


Marshall DeRosa

Marshall DeRosa received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Houston and his B. A. from West Virginia University, Magna Cum Laude. He has taught at Davis and Elkins College (1985-1988), Louisiana State University (1988-1990), and Florida Atlantic University (1990-Present). He is a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation and full professor in the Department of Political Science. He has published articles and reviews in professional journals, book chapters, and three books. He resides in Wellington, FL, with his wife and four children.

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