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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Vivian Ho

‘More than just a hero or heretic’: the story of photographer and FBI informant Ernest Withers

FBI BB King Martin Lur King Civil Rights
Ernest Withers took to the grave the secret that he was an informant for the FBI
Ernest Withers took to the grave the secret that he was an informant for the FBI. Photograph: Ernest C Withers

When Ernest Withers died in 2007, he took to the grave a secret that complicated his legacy as the famed photographer of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

For years, as he captured critical moments in Black American history, Withers worked as an informant for the FBI, oftentimes supplying the photographs he took of the civil rights movement to the very organization set on dismantling it.

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