MLK III urges Ashcroft to remove Hoover's name from FBI building

WASHINGTON - Martin Luther King the third urged Attorney General John Ashcroft Wednesday to support legislative efforts to remove former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover&#39;s name from the FBI&#39;s headquarters building. <br> <br> The son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior wrote in a letter to Ashcroft, ``While it is the legislative right of Congress to pass legislation dropping the name, it is the moral right of those serious about justice to have a position on this issue.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Hoover, who was director of the FBI and its predecessor from 1924 until his death in 1972, is known for probing gangsters and Communists, modernizing investigative techniques and securing more funding for his agency. <br> <br> But Hoover also raised questions in later years for purposely failing to restrict mafia activities and using the FBI to carry out political vendettas against civil rights activists like King. <br> <br> On the 39th anniversary of the famous ``I Have a Dream&#39;&#39; speech on the National Mall, King&#39;s son, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, appealed to Ashcroft to rename FBI headquarters. <br> <br> King told reporters outside the Justice Department, ``We feel that it is unjust that a man who really did some very notorious and negative things, that his name is on that building. It&#39;s an insult. It&#39;s a disgrace.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Dick Gregory, a member of SCLC&#39;s board of directors, said ``If I was in Germany today and walked down the street and saw a brand new building with Adolph Hitler&#39;s name on it, I would think something very unethical is going on. I think that&#39;s the way we should feel about that building across the street.&#39;&#39;