Page "J. Edgar Hoover" Paragraph 31

In 1956, several years before he targeted King, Hoover had a public showdown with T. R. M.

Howard, a civil rights leader from Mound Bayou, Mississippi.

During a national speaking tour, Howard had criticized the FBI's failure to thoroughly investigate the racially motivated murders of George W. Lee, Lamar Smith, and Emmett Till.

Hoover wrote an open letter to the press singling out these statements as " irresponsible.