FBI Spied On Aretha Franklin For 40 Years For Links To Black Panthers

The FBI monitored Aretha Franklin for decades since the late 1960s, according to files released last month under the Freedom of Information Act.

On April 8, 1968, a memo informed the FBI about plans for a “huge memorial concert” with Franklin and others in support of “militant Black power.”

The memo mentioned that Franklin performed at a conference whose leaders “hate America” according to a “confidential source.”

As a civil rights activist who spoke out about the struggle for civil rights and women’s equality, Franklin was followed by the FBI due to alleged links to “possible racial violence” and “communist infiltration.”

Until she died at 76 in 2018, the FBI tracked her for decades and kept 270 pages of classified files.

The files show that the FBI has even made a “suitable pretext telephone call” to Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel in 1972 to confirm that the Black Partner Party had contacted Franklin via phone.

Journalist Jen Dize obtained the documents and published them in Courage News. Dize said that she first requested the files after Franklin’s death in 2018.

The documents also show that the FBI thought Franklin and another performance at a Martin Luther King’s memorial would “provide emotional spark” that could “ignite racial disturbance [in] this area.”