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Men work in an FBI office.

FBI and CIA Conducted Illegal Surveillance of 1960s Student Activists in the South

Newly declassified records reveal how paranoia about subversion in conservative states resulted in major constitutional violations.
by Jeremy Kuzmarov via CovertAction Magazine on March 13, 2025
KKK march overlaid on J. Edgar Hoover

How Hoover Took Down the Klan

The FBI’s successful campaign against white supremacists is also a cautionary tale.
by Beverly Gage via The Atlantic on November 20, 2022
Black and white photo of J. Edgar Hoover sitting at his desk.

J. Edgar Hoover, Public Enemy No. 1

The F.B.I. director promised to save American democracy from those who would subvert it—while his secret programs subverted it from within.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on November 14, 2022

RIP Fred Hampton: a Black Visionary Assassinated by the FBI

Fifty years ago this week, a squad of Chicago police officers killed Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
by Jefferson Morley via CounterPunch on December 4, 2019
Catalog, in red and black, for Drum & Spear Bookstore, depicting silhouettes of three people with afro hairstyles.

The FBI's War on Black-Owned Bookstores

At the height of the Black Power movement, the Bureau focused on the unlikeliest of public enemies: black independent booksellers.
by Joshua Clark Davis via The Atlantic on February 19, 2018

The Big Picture: Black Women Activists and the FBI

For more than a century, the American government has surveilled and harassed activists from marginalized communities.
by Ashley D. Farmer via Public Books on November 21, 2017
Cartoon panel of a man with a typewriter and a Department of Justice logo on the wall

They’ve Always Been Watching Us

From COINTELPRO to the NSA’s surveillance program, the US Government has been keeping a close watch on the American Left for a long time.
by Andy Warner, Jess Parker via The Nib on July 10, 2017
Illustration by Adrià Fruitós.

Greater America Has Been Exporting Disunion for Decades

So why are we still surprised when the tide of blood reaches our own shores?
by Viet Thanh Nguyen via The Nation on June 10, 2025
Stack of Newspapers.

A Brief History of America’s Campaign Against Dissident Newsmaking

On underground presses and state violence.
by Aaron Boehmer via Literary Hub on March 26, 2025
Repeated photo of Ericka Huggins fading in.

How Ericka Huggins and the Black Panther Party Attempted to Liberate Black Women in America

On John Huggins, Angela Y. Davis, and the complex history of an oft-misunderstood political movement.
by Mary Frances Phillips via Literary Hub on January 10, 2025
Exterior of Attica Correctional Facility.

The “Long Attica Revolt”

The resistance inside prisons is an integral part of the struggle against white supremacy and for Black liberation beyond the walls.
by Robert J. Boyle via Against the Current on June 30, 2024
J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover Shaped US History for the Worse

As director of the FBI for decades, J. Edgar Hoover helped build a massive, professionalized national security state and hounded leftists out of public life.
by Beverly Gage, Micah Uetricht via Jacobin on December 30, 2023
J. Edgar Hoover in front of a stained glass church window

One Bureau Under God

On the white Christian legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.
by Jeanne Theoharis, Lerone A. Martin via Boston Review on October 10, 2023
A picture of Huey Newton and Fredrika Newton embracing.

The Misunderstood Visionary Behind the Black Panther Party

Huey P. Newton has been mythologized and maligned since his murder 34 years ago. His family and friends offer an intimate look inside his life and mind.
by Jenny Rothenberg Gritz via Smithsonian on August 22, 2023
J. Edgar Hoover collage.

J. Edgar Hoover’s Long Shadow

The FBI’s first director built the agency around some of his own worst instincts.
by Michael Kazin via The New Republic on December 9, 2022
J. Edgar Hoover (center) with President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, February 23, 1961.

J. Edgar Hoover Tried to Destroy the Left — and Liberals Enabled Him

The author of a new biography explains how liberals played an important role in enabling Hoover’s antidemocratic crusade.
by Beverly Gage, Michael Brenes via Jacobin on November 28, 2022
J. Edgar Hoover.

A Biography That May Change Your Mind About J. Edgar Hoover

Behind his tough image, the longtime FBI director was a man of profound contradictions.
by Kai Bird via Washington Post on November 9, 2022
Mural of Black Panthers with raised fists.

Earl Anthony and the Black Panther Party

“I came to the realization that taking to the streets to fight social revolution in this country is like ‘spitting in the wind; it will fly back into your face.”
by M. Keith Claybrook Jr. via Black Perspectives on August 11, 2022
Photograph of Afeni Shakur holding a camera.

Afeni Shakur Took on the State and Won

Pregnant and facing decades in prison, the mother of Tupac Shakur fought for her life — and triumphed — in the trial of the Panther 21.
by Tashan Reed via Jacobin on November 18, 2021

The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular. But Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten.

While the Panthers have become a staple of pop culture, veteran members of the group remain invisible.
by Santi Elijah Holley via The New Republic on April 22, 2021
A group of people at a protest holding signs in support of the Black Panthers.

Revolution Is Illegal

Orisanmi Burton reflects on the legacy of the Panther 21 on the 50th anniversary (to the day) of their acquittal.
by Orisanmi Burton via Spectre on April 21, 2021
A still from "Judas and the Black Messiah."

The Unsettling Message of ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’

The new crime thriller about a magnetic leader of the Black Panther Party is a sharp criticism of the FBI’s surveillance of social movements past and present.
by Elizabeth Hinton via The Atlantic on February 13, 2021

The Assassination of Fred Hampton

The young Civil Rights activist was killed in the dead of night by police and the FBI. Who was Fred Hampton?
by Mariah-Rose Marie M via The Nib on February 15, 2019
James Comey, a tall white man in a suit, receiving a certificate in front of wall with a "Birmingham Civil Rights Institute" sign and a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Under Comey's Leadership, the FBI Targeted Black Activists and Muslim Communities

This is the man who has criticized the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King as "shameful."
by Jeanne Theoharis via The Intercept on April 24, 2018
Stokely Carmichael talking to members of the press at the House Rules Committee (1966).

Watching the Watchers

Confessions of an FBI special agent.
by Robert Wall via New York Review of Books on January 27, 1972
Children at the Oakland Community School, 1973.

What Happens When the U.S. Declares War on Your Parents?

The Black Panthers shook America before the party was gutted by the government. Their children paid a steep price, but also emerged with unassailable pride.
by Ed Pilkington via The Guardian on March 25, 2025
Brown Berets protesting white supremacy in San Diego in 2017.

The CIA Illegally Spied on Puerto Rican and Mexican American Activists for Decades

And is probably still at it. As newly released classified documents confirm activists’ long-held suspicions, the disclosures should also alert us to current dangers.
by Roberto Lovato via The Nation on January 16, 2025
Fr. Daniel Berrigan, left, and his brother, Fr. Philip Berrigan, outside the Montgomery County Court House in Norristown, Pennsylvania, 1981 (AP Photo/Paul Shane).

When the FBI Feared the Catholic Left

Even if today's anti-war protestors couldn’t tell you who the Berrigan brothers were, the Catholic Left’s shadow looms large.
by Arvin Alaigh via Commonweal on March 11, 2024
A black man peeking out from behind a door with bullet holes by a broadside schedule of Black Panther Party events.

Landmarking The Black Panther Party

In Chicago, preservationists have launched an unusual effort to explore the radical history of the 1960s civil rights group through the city’s built environment.
by Zach Mortice via CityLab on February 24, 2024
Illustration of workers designed like they are a part of a technological apparatus.

How Stanford Helped Capitalism Take Over the World

The ruthless logic driving our economy can be traced back to 19th-century Palo Alto.
by Sammy Feldblum via The Chronicle of Higher Education on July 20, 2023
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