"Seeing Red": Federal Campaigns against Black Militancy, 1919-1925 (Blacks in the Diaspora) [Hardcover]

Theodore Kornweibel Jr. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0253333377 | ISBN-13: 978-0253333377 | Publication Date: February 1, 1998 | Edition: First Edition

Now in Paper!

"Seeing Red"Federal Campaigns Against Black Militancy, 1919-1925Theodore Kornweibel, Jr.

A gripping, painstakingly documented account of a neglected chapter in the history of American political intelligence.

"Kornweibel is an adept storyteller who admits he is drawn to the role of the historian-as-detective....What emerges is a fascinating tale of secret federal agents, many of them blacks, who were willing to take advantage of the color of their skin to spy upon others of their race. And it is a tale of sometimes desperate and frequently angry government officials, including J. Edgar Hoover, who were willing to go to great lengths to try to stop what they perceived as threats to continued white supremacy." -- Patrick S. Washburn, Journalism History

Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., Professor of African American history in the Africana Studies Department at San Diego State University, is author of No Crystal Stair and In Search of the Promised Land.

Blacks in the Diaspora -- Darlene Clark Hine, John McCluskey, Jr., and David Barry Gaspar,general editors

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

This brisk book vividly conjures up the bristling radical politics of the 1920s and the fruits of a fertile combination of two political pathologies, racism and anticommunist hysteria. It should enlighten a broad audience on a period and a type of racial and political suppression less well known than those of later decades. Indeed, the development of the government's ideology and practice of espionage on black movements that Kornweibel (African American History/San Diego State Univ.) efficiently describes went on to become the basis for the surveillance and red-baiting of the civil-rights movement in the 1960s (see Gerald D. McKnight, The Last Crusade, p. 38). We are reminded, as Kornweibel outlines the emergence of the multiplicity of government intelligence organs after WW I, that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dedicated enemy at the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, and his notorious filing system got their start way back in 1919, at what was then the Bureau of Investigation's General Intelligence Division. Efficiently deploying his archival research, Kornweibel focuses on specific intelligence campaigns against black radical publications and organizations, including the NAACP and A. Philip Randolph's newspaper the Messenger. The case of the relatively moderate NAACP demonstrates that even though supposed communist links were the pretext for intelligence tactics against black political groups, the suspicion and suppression of them during the Red Scare ``was not limited to the genuinely radical voices.'' Especially notable is the chapter on the surveillance of Marcus Garvey for its additional twist on the situation, the work of black government informers who infiltrated black organizations. Kornweibel's matter-of-fact treatment avoids rancor, allows the charged events to speak for themselves, showing how ``the political agenda of many white Americanswhite supremacybecame the security agenda of powerful arms of the national government.'' -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

[Kornweibel] is the pre-eminent expert on the large-scale federal effort to monitor, control, and undermine black protest from the early post-war years to the mid-twenties. His book, tightly written, carefully documented, and at times passionately argued, bares the sordid story of government efforts to circumscribe and ultimately crush black dissent and protest." --Left History "Read Kornweibel's important book--and fret over the American Government's timeless compulsion to wield extralegal procedures against the unpopular and dispossessed." --The San Diego Union-Times "It should enlighten a broad audience on a period and a type of racial and political suppression less well known than those of later decades... Kornweibel's matter-of-fact treatment avoids rancour, allows the charged events to speak for themselves, showing how 'the political agenda of many white Americans--white supremacy--became the security agenda of powerful arms of the national government.'" --Kirkus Reviews For several years after World War I, any African Americans who spoke out forcefully for their race--editors, union organisers, civil rights advocates, political activists, and Pan-Africanists--were likely to be investigated by a network of federal intelligence agencies. A young J. Edgar Hoover of the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI) spearheaded the effort to discredit black activists and their demands for civil rights as communist-inspired and a threat to national security, a real Red Scare. For this gripping account of a neglected, shameful chapter of American political intelligence, Theodore Kornweibel has uncovered much new material, including the identities of black informers and agent provocateurs. [Kornweibel's] book is based almost entirely on extensive primary research in numerous archives and in difficult-to-decipher microfilm. Others may build on his work in the future, but I am certain that no one will duplicate his research... ["Seeing Red" is] a significant contribution both to African American history and to the history of intelligence-[gathering]."--Susan Rosenfeld, former Chief Historian of the FBI "Kornweibel is an adept storyteller who admits he is drawn to the role of the historian-as-detective... What emerges is a fascinating tale of secret federal agents, many of them blacks, who were willing to take advantage of the colour of their skin to spy upon others of their race. And it is a tale of sometimes desperate and frequently angry government officials, including J. Edgar Hoover, who were willing to go to great lengths to try to stop what they perceived as threats to continued white supremacy."--Patrick S. Washburn, Journalism History"

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press; First Edition edition (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253333377
• ISBN-13: 978-0253333377
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,024,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The FBI, born in a war against Black rights, December 24, 2008

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Seeing Red": Federal Campaigns against Black Militancy, 1919-1925 (Blacks in the Diaspora) (Paperback)

The FBI and the other "security" and "intelligence" agencies of the US government came into their modern identities in the vicious campaigns against dissent in this country during World War I and in the years after it when the heat of the Russian Revolution and the upserge of revolution that followed it swept over the United States. The government carried out a ruthless campaign of deportations, banning newspapers, imprisoning IWW and socialist leaders like Eugene V. Debs and violent crushing of strikes by the national guard, armies of cops, and the US Military. This was the period with US Army "air pioneer" Billy Mitchell offered to bomb West Virginia strikers, but was told the mine bosses would use their own planes!

This book indicates that the African American movement for civil rights and equality as well as early Black nationalist, socialist, and other radicals were the target of spying, harassment, and persecution during these days. Not only did government agents penetrate African American organizations and attempt to provoke them against each other, but the Post office and the FBI attempted to obstruct the circulation of main line Black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender. This book also show how Washington worked directly with the British government to harass, spy on, and hinder organizations that advocated independence and self-government for British and other European colonies in Africa and the West Indies.

The FBI, born in this period, was born to fight Black rights!