J. Edgar Hoover

LBJ was Hoover's Co-Conspirator in the FBI's War on King and Civil Rights

by Jonathan Eig and Jeanne Theoharis

Americans have been taught to think of J. Edgar Hoover's efforts to discredit and destroy Dr. King as the work of a singular, personal animus. Recently declassified documents show that President Lyndon Johnson was well aware and supportive of Hoover's efforts, demonstrating the wide resistance of the establishment to challenge. 

Michael Kazin on J. Edgar Hoover, and Beverly Gage's Acclaimed Biography

by Michael Kazin

The signal contribution of Gage's book is not to examine Hoover's ideology or the details of his personal life, but to show how the FBI director built power and broad support, among even liberal Americans, for intrusive surveillance and repression of activists. 

Beverly Gage: When J. Edgar Hoover Tried to Destroy the Left, Liberals Helped Him

by Michael Brenes

Liberals enamored of Hoover's performance professionalism and efficiency, plus his fervent anticommunism, allowed many powerful liberals to remain on board with the repression his FBI unleashed against the political left. 

Beverly Gage on J. Edgar Hoover—Enemy of Democracy

Beverly Gage's book explains the FBI director's longevity not to dark arts of blackmail and secret-keeping, but to a more straightforward and disturbing explanation: many Americans shared Hoover's reactionary views and liked how he cracked down on dissenters. 

Ernie Lazar, Who Amassed Archive of FBI Documents, Dies at 77

"Through sheer perseverance and patience, Mr. Lazar became a kind of Zen master of the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, a provision enacted in 1967 that allowed the public a centralized way to request unclassified government material."

Trump is Attacking the Most Conservative Agency of the Government

by Garrett M. Graff

The embedded conservatism of the FBI is so severe that Democratic presidents have never felt politically entitled to name a fellow Democrat to lead the Bureau. Trump's attacks on the FBI as part of a liberal "deep state" are ludicrous.

A New Film Details the FBI’s Relentless Pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr.

The new film "MLK/FBI" addresses Americans' failure to remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was unpopular, labeled as divisive and subversive, and subject to harassment by federal law enforcement agencies during his life. 

‘MLK/FBI’ Review: A Damning Look at J. Edgar Hoover’s Attempts to Destroy a Civil Rights Hero

The most revealing takeaway from a new documentary on the FBI's campaign to take down Martin Luther King, Jr. isn’t that J. Edgar Hoover used every dirty machination at his disposal to take King down, but that most of the country seemed to think it was the right thing to do.

The FBI Has a History of Targeting Black Activists. That's Still True Today

The FBI has long disrupted and discredited civil rights leaders. It should put its authorities to better use by holding officers accountable.

When America Tried to Deport Its Radicals

by Adam Hochschild

A hundred years ago, the Palmer Raids imperilled thousands of immigrants. Then a wily official got in the way.

NYU's Stephen F. Cohen continues to dismiss theories of Russian collusion

He says former CIA Director John Brennan's statements about Trump echo Jospeh McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover

How Bad Was FBI Spying on African American Writers? An Interview with William Maxwell

by Robin Lindley

Maxwell reports on his sweeping study of the massive government campaign targeting black American literary figures.

What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

by Beverly Gage

Would the F.B.I.’s smear campaign against Martin Luther King Jr. work today?

Yale historian Beverly Gage discovers uncensored version of the FBI letter blackmailing Martin Luther King

Apparently hoping to derail King’s acceptance of the Nobel Prize, J. Edgar Hoover had one of his deputies, William Sullivan, write a smear letter to King.

This is how far we've come on gay issues in 50 years

by KC Johnson

50 years ago a tape recording caught LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover discussing the possibility a cabinet secretary was gay. 

US trained Alaskans as secret 'stay-behind agents'

Invasion of Alaska? Yes. It seemed like a real possibility in 1950.

Beverly Gage: Somewhere, J. Edgar Hoover Is Smiling

Beverly Gage, a Yale history professor, is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded....There can be no question that COINTELPRO was more intrusive—if also more targeted—than today’s apparent efforts at mass technological surveillance by the National Security Agency. But there is at least one important distinction that makes today’s scandal far more disturbing. When the FBI launched COINTELPRO, it was acting alone, outside of the boundaries of established law. Today, what the NSA is doing appears to be legal—and nearly every branch of the government is complicit. Unlike Hoover’s activities, the NSA’s programs come to us with the seal of congressional and judicial approval. It didn’t take J. Edgar Hoover to engineer this scandal. We did it to ourselves....

Cartha D. DeLoach, No. 3 in the F.B.I., Is Dead at 92

Cartha D. DeLoach, who as a top aide and confidant to J. Edgar Hoover was the F.B.I.’s liaison to the White House and a powerful intermediary between Hoover and President Lyndon B. Johnson during an especially tense political era, died on Wednesday on Hilton Head Island, S.C. He was 92.The death was confirmed by his son Tom.Mr. DeLoach, who was known as Deke, spent more than 25 years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, rising to deputy associate director, the No. 3 position, behind only Mr. Hoover and the associate director, Clyde Tolson.