In a 1968 speech, Martin Luther King Jr. told America to be “true to what you said on paper.” That challenge, to honor the rights outlined in the country’s Constitution, ironically came at a time when the government was violating the rights of the man who said it.

The FBI conducted a “no holds barred” counterintelligence campaign against King, said Lerone A. Martin, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford where he helps oversee one of the most comprehensive collections of King’s papers.

This campaign included placing illegal wiretaps on his phone and bugging hotel rooms when he traveled – as well as spreading information designed to portray him as an immoral communist.

More evidence of this effort can be found in the many pages of digitized records released by the National Archives on July 21. The records were originally sealed until 2027 to protect people who had personal information illegally gathered about them. Even after this early release, some records will remain sealed for two more years.

Lerone A. Martin | Luna

The research team at the King Institute is still examining the more than 230,000 pages of documents, but it is likely that very little new information of substance will be uncovered, said Martin, who is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor at the institute as well as professor of religious studies and of African and African American studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Still, Martin hopes the American public will take this moment as an opportunity to reflect on the challenge King issued.

“The real story here is not about the purported failings of a human being; it is about what happens when you have a government that is not accountable to the people that it governs,” he said. “I hope that as a society, we'll be able to have that conversation.”

Here are three things Martin says readers can take away from the release of these documents:

Many of these records were gathered as part of a campaign to discredit Martin Luther King Jr.

Starting in 1963, the FBI conducted five years of close surveillance on King. He was never found guilty of a federal crime, but the FBI solicited help from elected officials, journalists, and clergy members in a counterintelligence program against him.

Given the motives for obtaining this information, anyone reading it should look at the claims skeptically, Martin said.

“I think we forget that at one point in time, Martin Luther King Jr. was not liked,” Martin said. “He was inconvenient because he spoke truth to power in many ways.”

In addition to accusing him of being anti-American and a communist, the government often blamed him for violence that broke out at marches, even though he preached nonviolence. When King died in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson didn’t even attend his funeral, Martin noted, and the campaign to discredit him continued for many years after his death.

Today, King is celebrated and is the only American citizen with a national holiday in his honor. But that was established in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, 15 years after King’s assassination.

The files do not provide more clarity on the alleged conspiracy around King’s assassination.

Prior to the release of these files, some hoped that more light would be shed on King’s assassination, but there is not much new in these files to help corroborate what is already known.

Many, including King’s family, believe that his death involved more people than James Earl Ray, who was convicted of his murder. Shortly after confessing in 1969, Ray recanted and maintained for the rest of his life that he did not shoot King.

In 1999, the King family brought a wrongful death civil suit in which a jury found there was credible evidence of a broader conspiracy around the assassination. Although this trial produced new testimony, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to investigate further.

Some of the newly released records do describe the investigation of Ray, including an interview with his brother, who also doubted that Ray was the shooter. But there is no definitive new evidence.

One thing is clear from these records and earlier ones: The FBI made a concerted effort to stop King’s work, Martin said. For instance, a memo to the attorney general, which was revealed in an earlier records release, blames King for violence during the Memphis march in 1968, shortly before his death. The memo also states that the government should try to stop King’s work before the Poor People’s March planned for Washington, D.C.

“You do see the FBI trying to create a reality around King and then trying to make moves against him based on the reality they’re creating,” Martin said.

The release of these records presents a teachable moment for students and the public.

The files are available for anyone to read at the National Archives. This is an opportunity to see how government agencies were trying to weaponize information, Martin said, and readers of the files should look at the claims against King critically.

To help educate young people, the King Institute at Stanford is purposely involving undergraduate student researchers in the examination of these records.

“This is a historic moment, and I think that they should be a part of it,” Martin said. “But even more than that, it's important that young people who are going to be engaged citizens be made aware of history and what happens when there is a lack of government accountability.”

When the students come across information that is sensitive, they discuss as a group how to vet the information to see if it is credible. This skill is critical to learn in today’s world of misinformation and “deep fakes,” Martin said.

Even with the negative or misleading material that people are likely to encounter, Martin believes King’s message of fighting for America’s founding principles will shine through.

“We’ll get a chance to see how committed Martin Luther King Jr. was to democratic ideals,” he said. “He was hunted and surveilled, yet he still continued. I think that should inspire us.”