Stanley Levison

--- created: 2026-05-15 updated: 2026-05-15 title: Stanley Levison aliases:

• Stanley David Levison tags:
• Person
• CivilRights
• FBI
• COINTELPRO
• MLK
• ColdWar
• 1960s category: "Activist & Lawyer" summary: "Stanley Levison was a New York attorney and businessman who was one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest advisors and who had Communist Party USA ties in the early 1950s - providing the FBI's legal justification for wiretapping King and the SCLC beginning in 1962, despite the FBI's own evidence that Levison had severed his Communist Party ties before he became associated with King." born: 1912-05-02 died: 1979-09-12 location: "New York, New York"

Stanley David Levison (May 2, 1912 - September 12, 1979) was a New York attorney, businessman, and civil rights fundraiser who became one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest advisors and friends, and whose past association with the Communist Party USA became the FBI's primary legal justification for placing wiretaps on King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference beginning in 1962. The FBI under Director J. Edgar Hoover used the Levison connection to frame King as susceptible to communist influence, even as the FBI's own intelligence indicated that Levison had severed his Communist Party ties before he became significantly associated with the civil rights movement.¹

Background

Levison was born in New York City and built a successful business career in New York real estate and other ventures. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he was involved with the Communist Party USA, providing financial support and serving in administrative roles. The precise nature and extent of his party involvement was documented by FBI informants; the FBI characterized him at the time as a significant financial figure within the party's organizational structure.

By the mid-1950s, as he became more deeply involved in civil rights fundraising and the nascent movement King was leading, the documentary record of active Communist Party involvement ended. The FBI's own files showed no significant party activity after this period, though the agency continued to treat him as a suspected communist influence on King.¹

Relationship with King

Levison became involved with the SCLC from its founding period, contributing fundraising expertise and organizational advice. He became one of King's most trusted friends and advisors, helping draft King's speeches and correspondence, advising on organizational strategy, and providing the kind of frank counsel that King valued. The two men spoke regularly by telephone.

When the FBI informed Attorney General Robert Kennedy of the Levison connection in 1962, Kennedy - concerned that the Levison association could be used to discredit King and the civil rights legislation the Kennedy administration was pursuing - urged King to sever direct contact with Levison. King did so in 1963, communicating with Levison through intermediaries, but the two men maintained the relationship indirectly.

The FBI's wiretap authorization, granted by Robert Kennedy in October 1963, covered both King's phones and Levison's on the basis that Levison remained a communist influence on King. This authorization was the legal basis for the most extensive FBI surveillance of a private American citizen in the agency's history up to that point.²

Church Committee Findings

The Church Committee investigated the FBI's surveillance of King and found that the Levison justification was inadequate to support the scope of surveillance actually conducted. The committee found that the FBI had information undermining the claim that Levison remained an active communist by the time the surveillance was authorized, and that the surveillance had extended far beyond any legitimate counterintelligence purpose into pure political harassment and disruption under COINTELPRO.

The committee documented that William Sullivan, head of the FBI's Domestic Intelligence Division, had personally prepared the anonymous "suicide letter" sent to King - a letter whose contents had nothing to do with any alleged Levison-communist connection and everything to do with destroying King's public reputation.

Later Life

After King's assassination in April 1968, Levison remained active in civil rights and labor causes in New York. He helped found the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a labor-civil rights organization, and continued charitable work until his death. He died in New York on September 12, 1979.¹