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Memorandum for the Attorney General told, that such close cooperation prejudices the FBI and results in no- results being obtained. That, of course, is an absolute fallacy for we have obtained results ia a number of church bombings 8 and other civil © rights violations. © ae a | : However, in order to minimize as much & as + possible the unwarranted criticism which the FBI has received, we have over the last - year refrained from close contacts or connection with the local authorities. This I have regretted because a gulf has gradually developed and we are not kept informed as we have been in the past of actions contemplated and developments in cases handled by the local authorities. In the late twenties and early thirties there was great reluctance upon the part of the local authorities to cooperate with the FBI and it took us several years - before we could break down this reluctance, but we finally did s0 and from . that time until within the last year we have had the closest cooperation from the local authorities in all matters including civil rights. That cooperation has now practically ended by reason of our refraining from dealing with the local authorities. I personally do not approve of this policy because I think law enforcement should work as a team, and the mere fact that we have had in the past cordial relationships with local authorities did not mean that we favored them if they violated any Federal statute. As a matter of fact, our record shows that we have vigorously investigated and successfully prosecuted local authorities when Federal laws have been violated. Another aspect of this matter which I think should be drawn ; to your attention has been the constant complaint made by the Negro elements in the South that there was no use to report matters to the FBI because ali of our Agents in the South were Southerners, This complaint was untrue. Martin Luther King several months ago made a speech in which he claimed that all of our Agents in Albany, Georgia, where there had been violent racial demonstrations, were born in the deep South and Negroes should not report matters to that office. We have five Agents at Albany, Georgia, and I checked into the matter and found that four of the five had been born in northern states and that only one bad been born in what could be called the ~ deep South. I made an effort to effect an appointment with Martin Luther King so as to correct his impression, assuming he had been misinformed, but he refused to make an appointment so}, therefore, have to conclude that he was deliberately lying when he made the statement he did. ‘Nevertheless the effect of his statement in the South and the statements of other Negro leaders has resulted in the impression that practically all of our southern offices are manned by Agents who were born in the South.