March 6, 1998
Contact: Louise Snider, 619/594-5204
Feds Post-WWI Campaigns Targeting Black Militants Revealed
A newly published book, "Seeing Red, Federal Campaigns Against Black Militancy, 1919-1925," (Indiana University Press, 1998) presents a gripping account of the federal government’s early brutal response to black activism.
African Americans who spoke out forcefully for their race were regarded as communists or communist pawns and a threat to national security. It was the nation’s first "red scare."
Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., the author of "Seeing Red," documents how the Bureau of Investigation (later, renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation) intimidated individuals, tapped their phones, placed them under surveillance, and threatened them with prosecution.
Kornweibel, a professor of Africana studies at San Diego State University, began his research nearly 20 years ago, relying almost entirely on primary documents, archival materials, and difficult-to-decipher microfilm.
Through his exhaustive research, he has pieced together how the federal government’s political intelligence system took shape during and after World War I, the early role played by the young J. Edgar Hoover, and the pattern of hostility to racial and civil rights that prevailed in the Bureau for the next 50 years. He also discloses the use of black undercover informants and describes the roles of the Bureau’s first black agents.
Susan Rosenfeld, former chief historian of the FBI, said, "‘Seeing Red’ is a significant contribution both to African American history and to the history of intelligence gathering."
"Seeing Red" is available at SDSU’s The Campus Store and area bookstores. There will be a booksigning at The Campus Store on Tuesday, March 31, from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
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To interview Professor Kornweibel, call 594-1555.