President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14176, Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on January 23, 2025.
The National Archives’ Role in Fulfilling Executive Order 14176
In accordance with United States law, it is the responsibility of the National Archives to serve as the final repository of the records of the United States federal government, and make those records available to the American people. Many of the records related to the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were previously transferred to the National Archives from federal agencies but were not available to the public. The National Archives is coordinating with other federal agencies across the Executive Branch to ensure that any remaining records are identified and transferred to the National Archives as soon as possible.
How is the National Archives Making These Records Available?
The National Archives is working with other federal agencies to review and release records related to the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Records relating to the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be added to this web page on a rolling basis as they are released.
These records are being reviewed through a prioritized interagency process to ensure maximum transparency. Researchers may encounter some information that is withheld under FOIA, as required by law.
2025 Release
The table below displays the file names and links to all of the documents released related to the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- July 21, 2025 – 3:30 PM ET Release: 243,496 pages (6,301 PDF files and 1 MP3 audio file)
Release Notes
The July 21, 2025 release includes the FBI records related to the investigation into the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (codename: MURKIN); records that the CIA deemed responsive to E.O. 14176 (including documents already included in the JFK Assassination Records Collection at the National Archives); as well as Department of State file “PS 10-4 US-UK/Ray, James Earl,” which includes information related to Ray’s extradition from the United Kingdom.
For records released on July 21, 2025, researchers may encounter a combination of black and white and colored scans. Here’s why: black and white scans were used in order to more efficiently facilitate the prioritized interagency review process. However, some pages were not legible in black and white. When the National Archives encountered unreadable pages, they were replaced with legible color scans.
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Image Credit: Martin Luther King, Jr. (detail) by Jack Lewis Hiller, 1960, Gelatin silver print, used with permission of National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Jack Lewis Hiller.
