One of the more interesting and under-explored figures in MLK assassination lore is Art Hanes, one-time lawyer for James Earl Ray. He's someone who deserves deeper examination.
Most of you have heard of the notorious attack on the Freedom Riders, activists who rode integrated buses into segregated areas. On May 14, 1961, local KKK Klaverns swarmed the group in Birmingham, Alabama and bludgeoned members while police looked on.
npr.org
npr.org
The public learned new details about this attack over a decade later during the Church Committee hearings when an FBI informant, Gary Thomas Rowe, spoke of a deal between the attackers and police.
archive.org
archive.org
What most people aren't aware of, however, is that during his testimony Rowe also mentioned surveilling the campaign of a former FBI agent in Birmingham.
Who could that be? Art Hanes. Hanes worked for the Bureau between 1948 and 1951, and would go on to serve as a lawyer for the Klan in high-profile cases after his departure.
archive.org
archive.org
But immediately after leaving the Bureau, Hanes went to work for a CIA contractor tied to the Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1951 he accepted a position as head of security at Hayes Aircraft Corporation. Hayes employees were used in the Bay of Pigs attack.
Does that mean Hanes has a definitive connection to the CIA? Absolutely. Hanes was an asset and confidential informant for the Agency, allegedly working between the years of 1952 and 1959 to spy on his employer, Hayes Aircraft.
archives.gov
archives.gov
The above memo, released in an unredacted form in December 2022, documents another more interesting connection; it notes that Hanes was "instrumental in recruiting several Alabama National Guard pilots during the Bay of Pigs incident..."
archives.gov
archives.gov
So Hanes deserves examining for a number of reasons. First, the Birmingham attack on the Freedom Riders occurred on May 14, 1961, two weeks before a runoff in Birmingham's mayoral election. Hanes's opponent, Tom King, had received more votes in an election earlier that month.
Hanes ran on an explicit segregationist platform that demanded voters turn out to polls to keep "white control" of Birmingham. The violence in Birmingham set off a wave of attacks in Alabama, including another six days later in the state capitol, Montgomery.
Hanes rode that wave of racial violence to victory. In an interesting side note, a federal court cleared the Birmingham police of any involvement in the May 14th attack the same day Hanes was declared winner of the runoff election.
During Hanes's tenure as mayor, Birmingham earned the nickname "Bombingham" because of an escalation in attacks on Black churches, businesses, and homes. Naturally, Hanes blamed MLK and RFK for inciting the violence.
al.com
al.com
So it should come as no surprise that Hanes jumped to James Earl Ray's defense when it was announced a white man had killed the Black leader. Hanes argued it was Black militants who killed King, echoing a standard racist canard of Black-on-Black violence.
archive.org
archive.org
For example, it had been Black militants who had assassinated Malcolm X just three years earlier, according to an official investigation conducted by the FBI and the NYPD.
There's just one problem. Hanes was picking up a thread laid by FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. In the aftermath of the assassination, Hoover sent crony Deke DeLoach to convince journalist Jack Anderson that a Black dentist was responsible. It didn't work.
We now also know that Hoover hid that some of the witnesses at the Malcolm X assassination were FBI informants. Nation of Islam members Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated in 2021.
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Hanes's role may have been to shift attention away from the government. Publicly, he argued only two groups could have done it: the CIA and "black militants financed by Cuba or Red China." He argued for the latter even after Ray had dismissed him as his attorney.
Art Hanes deserves further attention from researchers. He's a former FBI agent who benefited from the Bureau's decision to allow racial violence in Birmingham; a CIA asset involved in the Bay of Pigs; and someone who sought to spread disinformation about MLK's assassin(s).
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