This memo identifies James M. Barko as the FBI special agent reported to have “testified that he thought state troopers acted in the public interest by breaking up the march with tear gas” in the Washington, D.C. newspaper “The Evening Star.”
Barko had been assigned to observe and photograph the march of demonstrators from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. The attempted march came to be known as Bloody Sunday after it was stopped by police troopers who used tear gas and violence to disperse the marchers.
The FBI received letters from the public who were outraged at the agent’s remarks.
