Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 [Paperback]

Kenneth O'Reilly (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0029236827 | ISBN-13: 978-0029236826 | Publication Date: April 1, 1991 | Edition: 1st Free Press Ppbk Ed. 1991

From Kennedy to Nixon, the FBI unwillingly found itself at the center of the struggle for racial equality and justice. Kenneth O'Reilly tells the shocking story of how political loyalties, priorities, and prejudices turned a government agency into an adversary, instead of a protector, of civil rights.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In thousands of civil rights skirmishes, FBI agents stood by passively as protesters were beaten by Ku Klux Klansmen and segregationists. In this searing expose, O'Reilly ( Hoover and the Un-Americans ) argues persuasively that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to destroy the civil rights movement made headway because the Kennedy and Johnson administrations tolerated it. With information from declassified FBI files and other documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, O'Reilly, who teaches at the University of Alaska, demonstrates that the FBI deployed an army of some 7000 "ghetto informants" to spy on black political groups. A zealous FBI campaign helped destroy the Black Panther party; electronic surveillance, break-ins and mail-openings extended to black student groups. Among the 1191 names on the FBI's "Agitator Index" was that of Jesse Jackson, who was subjected to wiretaps and other forms of surveillance. Under Nixon, FBI programs directed against blacks continued, according to O'Reilly. This important book complements Herbert Mitgang's Dangerous Dossiers.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This book is essential reading for every American concerned not simply for the vision of a just and equal society, but also about the way the nation's central law enforcement agency, the FBI, set its energy and organizational commitments against the civil rights movement. Driven by his own racism, J. Edgar Hoover turns out, in O'Reilly's account, to be as central a figure in the opposition to the movement as any Klansman. From his earliest days in the Bureau through the events of 1963 and 1964 and after, Hoover waged covert war not simply against Martin Luther King Jr. but all black activists. The book is a powerful, necessary corrective not only to the recent film Mississippi Burning but to a generation and more of myth-making about Hoover and his (white) G-men. It is an important addition to civil rights literature.
- Henry Steck, SUNY Coll. at Cortland
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st Free Press Ppbk Ed. 1991 edition (April 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029236827
• ISBN-13: 978-0029236826
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's worth the purchase., October 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 (Paperback)

To answer the reviewer's question, it's worth the purchase. I read this book when I was a high school student working at a public library. I came across it and read word for word what the author has written. The spearhead of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, were instigators of the civil rights movement, slandering prominent and potent leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and bringing down the Black Panther's Party.

As I read this book at the bus station, a sister sitting next to me wanted to know what I was reading. I showed her the book title and the author. Her response was, "You can't believe everything the white man says." If she read this book, she would definitely believe what the author says!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A insight into Cointelpro, October 9, 2002

By 

rodog63jr (bronx, N.Y.C. N.Y. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 (Paperback)

This books details the relationship of The FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover with Black America. It is clear from reading this book, that the FBI was the enemy. It only supported Civil Rights because of popular opinion. The FBI investigated the Viola Luizzo and Mississippi murders because whites were murdered and a FBI informant was riding in the car with the murderers of Mrs. Luizzo. This book shows how Hoover used his prestige during the 1960's riots to undermine Lyndon Johnson and help elect Richard Nixon. In addition to the character assination of Dr. King, this book details the harassment of the Black movement in general. The operations against The Black Panther Party are also in this book. This book is worth reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The FBI and the politics of riots, July 27, 2007

By 

Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 (Paperback)

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.

Kenneth O'Reilly's book provides a glimpse into the relationship between President Lyndon B. Johnson, (LBJ), and J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). O'Reilly examined their relationship through the response that both men exhibited to the urban riots that started in the summer of 1964. O'Reilly stated that LBJ, "turned to the FBI for help in managing the politics of the 1960's riots, not because he thought the FBI could be trusted, but because he thought the FBI could be controlled" (92). The Johnson administration was caught off guard when the riots broke out in northern cities because the administration had been totally fixated on the Jim Crow South. The spark that ignited the chain of rioting took place a little over two weeks after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The impetus for the riots was the shooting of a fifteen-year-old Negro boy by an off-duty police officer in New York City. Over the next several weeks rioting spread through Brooklyn, Rochester, and then to New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. LBJ saw these riots as a threat to all of the hard work he had accomplished with his Great Society programs. More importantly, O'Reilly's research showed that LBJ saw the riots had the potential to become a serious political threat to his re-election. Both the Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, and the segregationist George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, who was polling well in early Democratic primaries, had argued against passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Great Society. Both men predicted that they would give too much away to people who would just become lawless, lazy, and would not develop any work ethic. As these riots took place, LBJ envisioned votes slipping away from him in the upcoming November election and he knew that he had to act.

LBJ feared that southerners would turn their backs on the Democrats and vote Republican, so he turned to Hoover and the FBI for help, which O'Reilly's research showed to be a monumental mistake. LBJ held a strategy meeting about the riots with Hoover on July 22nd. He told Hoover that he was convinced that Communist agitators and right-wing elements had their hands in these riots, and LBJ asked Hoover to gather and report his findings about the involvement of these subversive elements. LBJ's beliefs about the radical support to the riots were music to Hoover's ears, since he was a rabid anti-Communist. In addition, in a strange twist in politics, LBJ received and used the help of Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948. Dewey became fed up with Goldwater's brand of conservatism. LBJ was happy to receive Dewey's help and used Dewey to finalize and draft the report of the FBI's findings, because Dewey still enjoyed the well-deserved reputation as a crime fighter from his days as New York's district attorney in the 1930's. O'Reilly's research showed just how paranoid LBJ was over the riots. During the summer LBJ was making so many phone inquiries, that he had a direct phone line installed into the bedroom of Cartha D. DeLoach, the Assistant Director of the FBI, who was serving as the FBI's liaison to the White House. One of several actions that the FBI took in September at LBJ's behest, was to leak to the media the FBI report that Dewey had drafted, which "was intended to defuse Goldwater's law-and-order politicking and to recapture those lost votes" (94). LBJ was even able to get Hoover, a staunch conservative, to support the War on Poverty in the report. Unexpectedly, Hoover and Dewey were both restrained in the report when it came to placing blame for the riots on Communist or radical agitators. They agreed that the riots were not started by these radical elements, but only received some support from them after they were initiated. This aspect of the report turned out to be quite accurate. The report came as a total surprise to conservatives because it emphasized poverty and discrimination as the causes of the riots, and not race or radical agitators. In addition, in a stunning rebuke to the charges of the Goldwater campaign, the FBI report supported Johnson's Great Society programs as the best response to the riots. The FBI report served the purpose for what LBJ intended. It was not written to stress any public policy, but was effectively used by LBJ to help stymie Goldwater's presidential campaign. The interesting question that O'Reilly answers is "at what price?"

Although LBJ was elated with both Hoover's and the FBI's support, history has proven that Hoover's acquiescence to LBJ would ultimately come at a high price to the Johnson administration, as well as the American people. "Only Hoover had it both ways. He managed to tell the president what he wanted to hear...and also to expand his bureaucracy's surveillance responsibilities" (98). After LBJ's re-election, he was continually plagued with riots across the country, and in response, he turned to the FBI to train local and state police in anti-riot tactics at the FBI academy. Once again, this rebounded to Hoover's advantage in increasing his budget and bureaucracy. During the summer of 1967, over 150 disturbances, from arson and looting to major riots and shootings, broke out in Black neighborhoods across the country. This activity caused conservatives to blame yet again LBJ's Great Society programs as the cause. LBJ's reaction was to press Hoover and his FBI to dig up information on radical elements within the civil rights movement, which again, Hoover was happy to oblige. He demanded an ever-increasing budget to correspond with the increase in responsibility of having to use FBI agents to infiltrate civil rights organizations. Unbeknownst to LBJ, by 1968 Hoover also started to funnel information to the Nixon campaign on radicals within the various civil rights organizations.

Thus, LBJ proved to be another in the long line of presidents who turned to Hoover and the FBI for illegal involvement in domestic political matters. LBJ, the consummate politician of his time, thought he could control Hoover; however, Hoover outmaneuvered him and succeeded in pursuing his own bureaucratic and political agenda. O'Reilly's article serves as one of the many examples why Hoover so skillfully held onto his job for so long.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.