The FBI spent years surveilling the 'Queen of Soul' Aretha Franklin, trying to gauge how involved she was with the civil rights movement, communism and the Black Power movement, a 270-page document shows.
, was monitored ahead of several performances and attendances she made for civil rights groups, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, whose first president was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In a memo dated April 8, 1968 – four days after King was assassinated – Franklin was scheduled to perform at a memorial concert for him in Atlanta, along with Sammy Davis, Jr., Marlon Brando, Mahalia Jackson and The Supremes.In this March 13, 1972 file photo, Aretha Franklin holds her Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blue performance of the song"Bridge Over Troubled Waters," in New York.
She was identified in a 1969 memo titled"Possible Racial Violence, Urban Areas, Racial Matters" when, in the year before, Denver concertgoers rioted after she refused to perform at the Red Rocks amphitheater due to not being properly paid. "In view of the fact there is no evidence of involvement by Miss Franklin in [Black Liberation Army] activities and in view of her fame as a singer, it is felt that it would not be in the best interests of the Bureau to attempt to interview her," the memo said.At an August 1968 SCLC meeting, in which Rev. James Bevel criticized America's role in the Vietnam War and spoke of a shift away from nonviolence, C.L.
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