http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Jacqueline_Kennedy/jacqueline-kennedys-feelings-martin-luther-king-jr-revealed/story?id=14478321

By RICK KLEIN (@rickklein)

Sept. 8, 2011

 Speaking in the months after her husband's
assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy was so upset with
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that she told a friend
and interviewer that she could barely look at images
of him.

"I just can't see a picture of Martin Luther King
without thinking, you know, that man's terrible," Mrs.
Kennedy said, as part of an oral history series of
interviews released this month.

The widowed first lady soured on King as a result of
secret wiretaps arranged by FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover. Hoover had told President Kennedy that King
tried to arrange a sex party while in town for the
March on Washington, and told Robert Kennedy that
King had made derogatory comments during the
president's funeral, Mrs. Kennedy recalled.

But as for what was actually said by King and his
circle, history remains uncertain. The original
surveillance tapes involving King have never been
released publicly, and are under seal by court order
until 2027.

Rep. John Lewis, legendary civil rights leader and
friend of King's, told ABC News that he believes
Hoover concocted damaging material about King to
give to the Kennedys because "he wanted to destroy
the man.

"He did everything possible to make Dr. King look like
somebody from another planet," said Lewis, D-
Georgia. "I cannot believe that Dr. King ever said
anything in a negative manner about President
Kennedy. He admired, he loved … the Kennedy
family."

"He was so moved by the speech that President
Kennedy had delivered on June 12th, 1963, when he
said the question of civil rights was a moral issue,"
Lewis said.

Mrs. Kennedy said Robert Kennedy told her he had
heard FBI wiretaps in which he said that King had
 made derogatory comments in private about Cardinal
Richard Cushing, who delivered President Kennedy's
eulogy at his November 1963 funeral.

Mrs. Kennedy says Bobby told her "He made fun of
Cardinal Cushing and said that he was drunk at it.
And things about they almost dropped the coffin and
-- well, I mean Martin Luther King is really a tricky
person," Mrs. Kennedy said.

Watch the two-hour Diane Sawyer Special
"Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words" Tuesday 13
at 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

She also said that the president himself told her about
surveillance suggesting that King sought to organize
a sex party while in town for the March on
Washington in August 1963.

"He told me of a tape that the FBI had of Martin Luther
King when he was here for the freedom march. And he
said this with no bitterness or anything, how he was
calling up all these girls and arranging for a party of
men and women, I mean, sort of an orgy in the hotel,
and everything," she said.

The comments offer a glimpse of a complex series of
relationships that shaped 1960s Washington. Webs of
loyalties and ambitions tangled Hoover's FBI, Robert
 advertisement  Jacqueline Kennedy on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

 Kennedy's Justice Department, Rev. King's civil rights
crusade, and President Kennedy ambitious domestic
agenda -- with Jacqueline Kennedy overhearing much
of it.

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John and
Jacqueline, said her mother's comments about King
are evidence of the "poisonous" activities Hoover was
engaged in, as he ruled the FBI as his private fiefdom.

She said the comments didn't reflect her mother's true
feelings about King, pointing out that she was proud
to attend his funeral in 1968.

"Obviously J. Edgar Hoover had passed on something
that Martin Luther King said about my father's funeral,
to Uncle Bobby and to Mommy. And obviously, she
was upset about that," Caroline Kennedy told ABC's
Diane Sawyer.

"It shows you the poisonous … activities of J. Edgar
Hoover, and the idea that this is going on at the
highest levels of government is really twisted,"
Caroline Kennedy said.

"If you asked her what she thought of Martin Luther
King overall -- I mean she admired him
tremendously," she added.

Hoover's FBI tapped King's telephones from 1963
through 1966, based on the pretext that King was
being influenced by Communist interests. Robert
Kennedy, at his perch as attorney general, approved
of some of the initial surveillance of King's inner
circle.

Hoover kept a steady stream of damaging information
about King flowing to both Kennedy brothers.

Historian Michael Beschloss said Hoover appears to
have been trying to manipulate the Kennedys to turn
on King, by sharing tidbits -- like his supposed
snickering at JFK's funeral -- that he knew would
resonate with Mrs. Kennedy.

"If there was anything that was going to turn her
instantly against someone, that was it," Beschloss
said. "She was furious at Martin [Luther] King, at what
she had heard he had said about her husband's
funeral. And so, when she found out about what may
or may not have been on these tapes, she was
extremely ready to believe that there was some
terrible things there."

Mrs. Kennedy's recollections of her husband's
feelings toward King were far warmer. She said he
went out of his way to emphasize he wouldn't "judge
anyone" based on what he was told about the FBI
surveillance.

made derogatory comments in private about Cardinal
Richard Cushing, who delivered President Kennedy's
eulogy at his November 1963 funeral.

Mrs. Kennedy says Bobby told her "He made fun of
Cardinal Cushing and said that he was drunk at it.
And things about they almost dropped the coffin and
-- well, I mean Martin Luther King is really a tricky
person," Mrs. Kennedy said.

Watch the two-hour Diane Sawyer Special
"Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words" Tuesday 13
at 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

She also said that the president himself told her about
surveillance suggesting that King sought to organize
a sex party while in town for the March on
Washington in August 1963.

"He told me of a tape that the FBI had of Martin Luther
King when he was here for the freedom march. And he
said this with no bitterness or anything, how he was
calling up all these girls and arranging for a party of
men and women, I mean, sort of an orgy in the hotel,
and everything," she said.

The comments offer a glimpse of a complex series of
relationships that shaped 1960s Washington. Webs of
loyalties and ambitions tangled Hoover's FBI, Robert
"He said what an incredible speaker he was during
that freedom march thing," she recalled.

King met with Kennedy at the White House when he
was in Washington for the march, just months before
the president's assassination. And his phone call to
Coretta Scott King after her husband was sentenced to
jail just weeks before the 1960 presidential election
was an event some historians credited with boosting
black turnout -- possibly handing Kennedy the
presidency.

Mrs. Kennedy seemed to reference that call on the
tapes, but she didn't finish her thought.

"He acknowledged that having made that call during
the campaign got them -- Then he told me of a tape
that the FBI had … ," she said.