While raising funds in support of the Montgomery bus boycott, attorney and social activist Stanley Levison became acquainted with Martin Luther King, Jr. The two men developed a close relationship in which Levison not only advised King, but also aided him with the day-to-day administrative demands of the movement. In 1963, the FBI used King’s relationship with Levison, who they believed to be a communist functionary, to justify surveillance of King.
Born in New York City on 2 May 1912, Levison studied at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and the New School for Social Research before earning a law degree from St. John’s University. As a fundraiser for the American Jewish Congress (AJC), he raised funds for left-wing causes, including the defense of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and a campaign against the McCarran Internal Security Act. In the early 1950s, the FBI considered Levison to be a major financial coordinator for the Communist Party in the United States and began to monitor his activities. Within several years, however, it appeared that Levison had broken with the Communists, and the FBI regarded him as an inactive party member.
In the mid 1950s, Levison turned his attention to the civil rights struggle. In 1956, Levinson, Bayard Rustin, and Ella Baker created In Friendship, an organization that raised money for southern activists, including the Montgomery Improvement Association. They also formulated the concept of a regional “Congress of organizations” dedicated to nonviolent mass action, an idea that would later develop into the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
In 1958, Levison helped King edit Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story and secured a book contract with Harpers Brothers. Throughout King’s career, Levison continued to draft articles and speeches, prepare King’s tax returns, and raise funds for SCLC. In almost all instances, he performed these services without compensation. When King offered payment, Levison refused. “My skills,” he wrote King, “were acquired not only in a cloistered academic environment, but also in the commercial jungle. …I looked forward to the time when I could use these skills not for myself but for socially constructive ends. The liberation struggle is the most positive and rewarding area of work anyone could experience.”
The FBI’s interest in Levison was suddenly rekindled in early 1962, when the bureau learned of Levison’s friendship with King. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover believed that Levison was a Communist agent and that through Levinson, international communism influenced King’s actions. He brought this concern to the attention of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who warned King to end his relationship with Levison. The Attorney General also authorized the FBI to begin electronic surveillance of Levison, including his contact with King. At the close of a 1963 meeting with civil rights leaders, President Kennedy took King aside and repeated the administration’s warning.
Unwilling to lose a trusted advisor because of vague allegations, King refused to act on the administration’s request for over a year. Levison, however, placed great value on the administration’s support for the movement and insisted that King cut off all visible ties between the two. He continued to advise King on important matters, often through an intermediary. In October 1963, the FBI used evidence of the ongoing relationship to convince Robert Kennedy to approve wiretaps in King’s home and office.
After a long battle with diabetes and cancer, Levison died at his home in New York City in 1979.