The death of Dick Gregory in the midst of a national controversy over statuary honoring Confederate generals prompts me to suggest that we eliminate another affront to evolving national standards of decency — J. Edgar Hoover’s name on the FBI building in Washington, D.C.
Although the connection between Gregory and Hoover has escaped the attention of Gregory’s obituary writers, it is telling and, by itself, makes the case that Hoover’s name never should adorn an object of national reverence.
I know the story because, in response to a Freedom of Information request I made in 1978, the FBI released roughly 13,000 pages of documents relating to FBI counterintelligence operations against African Americans during the 1960’s.
Among the documents I received was a memorandum dated May 15, 1968, from Hoover to the special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office suggesting that, because Gregory had referred to members of the crime syndicate, known as La Cosa Nostra (LCN), as “the filthiest snakes that exist on earth,” the Chicago office should consider developing “a counterintelligence operation to alert La Cosa Nostra to Gregory’s attack on LCN.”
Stunned, I contacted Gregory, who then was living in Plymouth, Mass., and he asked me to meet with him and show him the document when he would be passing through Chicago a few days later. When we met, he shook his head and said, “Oh God, this is just incredible.”
Gregory read the memorandum over and over, and then asked me rhetorically, “Do you realize what you have here?” And he answered, “This piece of paper has the most powerful police agency in the history of this planet proposing that they contact the Mafia so that they could work together.”
There was no indication in the 13,000 pages of documents that any action was taken in response to the memo, and the then head of the Chicago office, Marlin W. Johnson, told me he did not recall the memo.
But the memorandum itself makes the case that stripping Hoover’s name from the FBI building would be a fitting legacy both for Gregory, who exemplified the best of American values, and for Hoover, who exemplified the worst.
Republish this article for free under a Creative Commons license.
Thank you for your interest in republishing our work
We welcome and encourage other news organizations to republish our reporting on the Cook County court system. Unless otherwise noted, all our work is available for republishing under the following conditions:
Contact editor@injusticewatch.org to let us know that you are republishing our work.
Do not change the story or the headline, except for house style or to reflect changes in time or location (e.g., “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”, or “Springfield, Illinois, can be changed to “Springfield” or “here”).
Stories must include the byline of the reporter(s), including any publishing partners. We prefer the format: “By Reporter Name, Injustice Watch.”
Include this language and links at the top of the story: “This story was produced by Injustice Watch, a nonprofit newsroom in Chicago that investigates issues of equity and justice in the Cook County court system. Sign up here to get their weekly newsletter.”
Copy the HTML using this “republication tool,” including the parse.ly tracking information.
You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Email editor@injusticewatch.org to request permission.
If you use canonical metadata, use the Injustice Watch URL as the canonical link.
You may include our content on webpages with ads, but you cannot sell ads specifically against our content. If you’re a nonprofit, you can’t state or imply that donations to your organization support Injustice Watch’s work.
You can’t republish our work wholesale or automatically. You must select stories to publish individually.
You can’t sell our material separately or syndicate it. This includes publishing or syndicating our work on platforms or apps, such as Apple News, Google News, etc.
If we send you a request to remove our content from your website, you must agree to do so immediately.
Please note, we will not provide indemnification if you are located or publishing outside the United States, but you may contact us to obtain a license and indemnification on a case-by-case basis.
Rob Warden was a co-founder of Injustice Watch and executive director emeritus and co-founder of the Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) at Northwestern University School of Law. During his 16-year tenure, the CWC was instrumental in exonerating 31 wrongfully convicted men and women in Illinois. Before launching the CWC, Rob was editor and publisher of Chicago Lawyer, where his investigations into Illinois capital cases launched a movement that culminated both in the founding of the Center in 1999 and abolition of the Illinois death penalty in 2011. His reporting at Chicago Lawyer was instrumental in 13 exonerations, including that of Gary Dotson, the nation’s first prisoner to be exonerated by DNA. Before that, Rob was a prize-winning investigative reporter for the Chicago Daily News and Washington Post. He has won more than 50 journalism awards and is the author of seven books.
A fitting legacy for Dick Gregory and J. Edgar Hoover
Share this:
COMMENTARY
The death of Dick Gregory in the midst of a national controversy over statuary honoring Confederate generals prompts me to suggest that we eliminate another affront to evolving national standards of decency — J. Edgar Hoover’s name on the FBI building in Washington, D.C.
Although the connection between Gregory and Hoover has escaped the attention of Gregory’s obituary writers, it is telling and, by itself, makes the case that Hoover’s name never should adorn an object of national reverence.
I know the story because, in response to a Freedom of Information request I made in 1978, the FBI released roughly 13,000 pages of documents relating to FBI counterintelligence operations against African Americans during the 1960’s.
Among the documents I received was a memorandum dated May 15, 1968, from Hoover to the special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office suggesting that, because Gregory had referred to members of the crime syndicate, known as La Cosa Nostra (LCN), as “the filthiest snakes that exist on earth,” the Chicago office should consider developing “a counterintelligence operation to alert La Cosa Nostra to Gregory’s attack on LCN.”
Stunned, I contacted Gregory, who then was living in Plymouth, Mass., and he asked me to meet with him and show him the document when he would be passing through Chicago a few days later. When we met, he shook his head and said, “Oh God, this is just incredible.”
Gregory read the memorandum over and over, and then asked me rhetorically, “Do you realize what you have here?” And he answered, “This piece of paper has the most powerful police agency in the history of this planet proposing that they contact the Mafia so that they could work together.”
There was no indication in the 13,000 pages of documents that any action was taken in response to the memo, and the then head of the Chicago office, Marlin W. Johnson, told me he did not recall the memo.
But the memorandum itself makes the case that stripping Hoover’s name from the FBI building would be a fitting legacy both for Gregory, who exemplified the best of American values, and for Hoover, who exemplified the worst.
Rob Warden
Rob Warden was a co-founder of Injustice Watch and executive director emeritus and co-founder of the Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC) at Northwestern University School of Law. During his 16-year tenure, the CWC was instrumental in exonerating 31 wrongfully convicted men and women in Illinois. Before launching the CWC, Rob was editor and publisher of Chicago Lawyer, where his investigations into Illinois capital cases launched a movement that culminated both in the founding of the Center in 1999 and abolition of the Illinois death penalty in 2011. His reporting at Chicago Lawyer was instrumental in 13 exonerations, including that of Gary Dotson, the nation’s first prisoner to be exonerated by DNA. Before that, Rob was a prize-winning investigative reporter for the Chicago Daily News and Washington Post. He has won more than 50 journalism awards and is the author of seven books.
More by Rob Warden