Photo: Leon Morris/Redferns
The FBI tracked Franklin ardently in the late ’60s and ’70s, and even once used a “suitable pretext telephone call” to Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel in November 1972 to determine that the Black Panther Party had contacted Franklin via phone, the documents show.
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In 1979, the FBI documented a death threat Franklin and her family received over the phone from a man who claimed he had married the singer in 1958. The death threat came four months after Franklin’s father was shot twice during an attempted robbery at his Detroit home, according to the document and theDetroit Historical Society.
Franklin received a similar threat via mail in 1974, according to the documents.
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Franklin and her attorneys pursued a copyright infringement case against the moderator, and documents show the moderator in 2006 “probably sold $3,500 to $4,000 worth of CD’s and DVD’s over the past two years.”
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The files show the FBI documented instructions for joining the fan group, which contained 115 members and had as few as 25 “members who are active posters.”
“At this time, all investigative leads have been exhausted and the case brought to its logical conclusion. As a result, it is requested that this case be closed,” the document adds.
Franklindied in August 2018at age 76 of pancreatic cancer.
She was a longtime civil rights activist, and wrote in her memoir that “Respect,” one of her biggest hits, was an anthem for the movement.
“It [reflected] the need of a nation, the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher—everyone wanted respect,” Franklin wrote. “It was also one of the battle cries of the civil rights movement. The song took on monumental significance.”
source: people.com
