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Four years after Martin Luther King's death, the FBI closed its file on his wife, saying, "No information has come to the attention of Atlanta which indicates a propensity for violence or affiliation of subversive elements," according to a memorandum dated Nov. 30, 1972.

FBI Spied on Widow Of Martin Luther King

ATLANTA -- Federal agents spied on the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for several years after his assassination in 1968, according to newly released documents that reveal the FBI worried about her following in the footsteps of the civil rights icon.

In memos that reveal Coretta Scott King being closely followed by the government, the FBI noted concern that she might attempt "to tie the anti-Vietnam movement to the civil rights movement."

Four years after Martin Luther King's death, the FBI closed its file on his wife, saying, "No information has come to the attention of Atlanta which indicates a propensity for violence or affiliation of subversive elements," according to a memorandum dated Nov. 30, 1972.

The documents were obtained by Houston television station KHOU in a story published on its Web site Thursday. Coretta King died in January 2006 at the age of 78.

The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- which King co-founded in 1957 -- said the documents illustrate the FBI's pattern of "despicable and devious" behavior against the organization and those affiliated with it.

One memo shows that the FBI even read and reviewed King's 1969 book about her late husband, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr." The agent made a point to say that her "selfless, magnanimous, decorous attitude is belied" by her "actual shrewd, calculating, businesslike activities."