Historical Figure
J. Edgar Hoover
1895–1972
American law enforcement administrator (1895–1972)
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Biography
John Edgar Hoover was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). President Calvin Coolidge first appointed Hoover as director of the BOI, the predecessor to the FBI, in 1924. After 11 years in the post, Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 years until his death in May 1972 – serving a total of 48 years leading both the BOI and the FBI under eight presidents.
In Their Own Words (5)
You state that the Bureau under the [counter-intelligence program] should not attack programs of community interest such as the [Black Panther Party] "Breakfast for Children." … You have obviously missed the point ... This program was formed by the BPP for obvious reasons, including their efforts to create an image of civility, assume community control of Negroes, and to fill adolescent children with their insidious poison.
"Racial Intelligence: Black Panther Party (BPP)" (27 May 1969). , 1969
Purpose of counter-intelligence action is to disrupt [Black Panther Party] and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge. If facts are present it aids in the success of the proposal but the Bureau feels … that disruption can be accomplished without facts to back it up.
Memo (16 Sept. 1970). , 1970
We are a fact-gathering organization only. We don’t clear anybody. We don’t condemn anybody.
Look magazine (14 June 1956). , 1956
Justice is merely incidental to law and order [...] Law and order is what covers the whole picture.
On CBS News in 1968 with Walter Cronkite, cited by Beverly Gage "America Is Safer Than It Used to Be. So Why Do We Still Have Calls for ‘Law and Order’?" The New York Times (August 30, 2016) , 1968
[Whoever did this] must be exterminated, and they must be exterminated by us.
On the perpetrators of the Kansas City Massacre of 1933, as quoted in Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough (2004: Penguin), p. 51. , 1933
Timeline
The story of J. Edgar Hoover, told in moments.
Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation at 29. He immediately began building files on suspected radicals. The filing system was his first love.
Rebranded the Bureau as the FBI and turned himself into a celebrity. He personally took credit for arrests he'd never made. The public believed the press releases.
Launched COINTELPRO. The secret program surveilled, infiltrated, and disrupted civil rights groups, antiwar movements, and anyone Hoover considered dangerous. He kept files on Martin Luther King Jr. for years.
Artifacts (1)
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