What are we to make of the vast surveillance apparatus directed at African Americans by the US government?? Materials in FBI Surveillance of James Forman and SNCC and Federal surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 (see blog post BHM #22) reveal the lengths the Federal Government went to control and undermine those in the civil rights movement.
James Forman was perceived as a threat to the internal security of the United States (as were others) and this collection of FBI reports comprises the Bureau’s investigative and surveillance efforts primarily during the 1961-1976.
In 1969, Forman aligned with the National Black Economic Development Conference (BEDC), and issued the “Black Manifesto,” which demanded $500 million dollars from Christian and Jewish groups in the United States as reparations for the slave trade. The FBI opened investigations against Forman and BEDC under offense codes for extortion, racketeering and civil unrest.
Forman filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Air Force. Arranged with the collection of FBI reports is one folder of FOIA correspondence between Forman, his lawyers, and several government agencies. Based on these documents, as well the Finding Aid for the James Forman Papers in the Library of Congress, Forman’s earliest FOIA activity occurred in 1976.
[Image from: Series I: James Forman: ~FBI~ Reports, 1961 – 1976 Subseries 2: Black Manifesto (circa 1969) Box 5-6]