Donald Trump has made public thousands of secret files related to Martin Luther King Jr's assassination after being concealed for almost half-a-century.
The US President released records of the FBI's surveillance of the prominent civil rights activists in the build up to his assassination in 1968.
Trump promised to unseal the files ahead of his return to the White House in January, also agreeing to declassify documents related to John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy's assassinations.
Meanwhile, the King records were initially intended to be unsealed in 2027.
However, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order ahead of its expiration date.
In a lengthy statement released Monday, King's two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father’s assassination has been a "captivating public curiosity for decades".
Despite admitting the assassination had left a significant mark on America, the siblings emphasised the personal nature of the matter, urging that "these files must be viewed within their full historical context".
The Kings also received advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing the documents.
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|Donald Trump
“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met -- an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,” they wrote.
“We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”
Bernice King was just five-years old when her father was killed at the age of 39.
Meanwhile, Martin III was aged just 10 in 1968.
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| Civil Rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr speaks in 1963Trump's Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure “unprecedented”, praising the 47th President for pushing for the release of the documents.
However, certain civil rights activists were far less complimentary about Trump's announcement.
“Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice,” Reverend Al Sharpton said.
“It’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the Maga base.”
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“It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,” the King Center added.
“This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace.”
King's own civil rights group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, were also among those who opposed the release.
The SCLC warned that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement.
Flickr | Martin Luther King Jr
MLK was assassinated after being shot in Memphis on April 4, 1968, aged just 39.
James Earl Ray, a career criminal, pleaded guilty to the killing, but later renounced his plea.
Before his arrest, Ray fled America to Canada, Portugal and the UK.
He entered his guilty plea in 1969 after died in 1998 at 70.
Despite initially pleading guilty, Ray later claimed he had been framed by shadowy conspirators.