Prior to the release, some relatives of King pushed back on the plan, saying: "For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years. We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.

On Monday, the Trump administration made public over 240,000 pages of FBI surveillance records on Martin Luther King Jr., a move that has sparked controversy among King’s family and the civil rights organization he co-founded.

The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.