Dozens of Civil Rights Era Files Will Be Released In Settlement of DC FOIA Case

In a significant victory for advocates of government transparency, the FBI has agreed to release records documenting the work of photographer Ernest Withers as an informant in Memphis during the civil rights era. The settlement, believed to be the first of its kind involving a civil rights-era informant, is the culmination of a nearly two-and-a-half year long FOIA lawsuit in a Washington, D.C., federal court case, Memphis Publishing Company v. Federal Bureau of Investigation.