Now in Paper

Seeing RedFederal 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

"Seeing Red" is a gripping, painstakingly documented account of a neglected chapter in the history of American political intelligence. From 1918 into the early 1920s, any African Americans who spoke out forcefully for their race — editors, union organizers, civil rights advocates, radical political activists, and Pan-Africanists — were likely to be investigated by a network of federal intelligence agencies. The "crime" that justified such surveillance was almost always the ideas they expressed. Agents of the federal government watched them, tapped their phones, rifled their offices, opened their mail, infiltrated their organizations, intimidated their audiences, and caused them to suffer the prospect of prosecutions, all because these agents disapproved of their beliefs.

A young J. Edgar Hoover was convinced that black militancy — including the demand for civil rights — was communist-inspired and a threat to both national security and white hegemony, views that would remain part of the FBI's gospel well into the 1970s.

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