Review of Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 by Kenneth O'Reilly

Kenneth O'Reilly, "Racial Matters": The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972 (New York: The Free Press, 1989).

"Racial Matters": The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972, by Kenneth O'Reilly, is an examination of the actions and inaction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the civil rights movement. Focusing largely on the director of the FBI in this time frame, J. Edgar Hoover, it explains the ways in which Hoover's personality was indelibly stamped on everything which the FBI did. Additionally, O'Reilly shows the way in which the FBI's response to the civil rights movement changed over time, although most of these changes were nearly imperceptible to an outsider. Finally, he examines the response of the FBI to one particular member of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.

J. Edgar Hoover was an interesting man, but O'Reilly barely touches upon the alleged seedier aspects of his life. Instead, he examines several key components of Hoover's personality that affected the way in which the FBI dealt with the civil rights movement. First of all, Hoover was known to be a racist. O'Reilly seems to attribute this to the fact that few people living when Hoover grew up were not racist in some way. Second, Hoover was a strong advocate of states' rights. He was reluctant to bring in the FBI on many cases because he felt that it would infringe upon the right or duty of local law officials to keep the peace. 

The last thing he wanted, he claimed, was for the FBI to become "a national police force." (p. 64) Finally, Hoover constantly emphasized the fact that the FBI's mission was not to protect anyone, it was simply to investigate people. Therefore, intervention by the FBI in many instances would have been outside of their self-described jurisdiction. For the most part, Hoover's views were supported by the presidents who served terms while he was the director of the FBI. Whether they supported him out of fear he would resign or because they fully agreed with his views on race and jurisdiction is not entirely clear.