FBI Index

Last updated
Index entry of Martin Luther King Jr. FBI Rabble Rouser index.pdf
Index entry of Martin Luther King Jr.

The FBI Indexes, or Index List, was a system used to track American citizens and other people by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) before the adoption of computerized databases. The Index List was originally made of paper index cards, first compiled by J. Edgar Hoover at the Bureau of Investigations before he was appointed director of the FBI. The Index List was used to track U.S. citizens and others believed by the FBI to be dangerous to national security, and was subdivided into various divisions which generally were rated based on different classes of danger the subject was thought to represent. [1]

Contents

General Intelligence Division

In 1919, during the First Red Scare, William J. Flynn of the Bureau of Investigation appointed J. Edgar Hoover chief of the General Intelligence Division (GID). [2] Hoover used his experience working as a library clerk at the Library of Congress to create an index tracking system which used extensive cross-referencing. [3]

The GID took files from the Bureau of Investigations (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation) and 'systematized' them via index cards. [4] The cards covered 150,000 people. [1] By 1939, Hoover had more than 10 million people 'Indexed' in the FBI's domestic file system. [5]

Although the GID was terminated in 1924 after objections from people such as William J. Donovan who questioned its constitutionality, [6] Hoover and the FBI continued to expand the Index system for use by the agency, by Hoover, and by Hoover's political associates well into the 1970s. Presently, the Index files covering an unknown number of Americans are still accessible by the FBI and its 29 field offices.

Titles of the evolving Index catalogs include: the Custodial Index, which included citizens or aliens with German, Italian and Communist sympathies, that could be held in internment camps during World War II; [7] the Security Index, for influential people to be "arrested and held" in case of a national emergency; [1] The Communist Index; [7] The Agitator Index; [1] Sexual Deviant Index; and The Administrative Index, which compiled several earlier indexes. [1]

Even though a complete list of Index titles is currently unavailable, Hoover and the FBI used their Index system to catalog Native American and African American liberation activists during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Vietnam War protesters and some other college students.

Custodial Detention Index

The Custodial Detention Index (CDI), or Custodial Detention List was formed in 1939–1941, as part of a program named variously the "Custodial Detention Program" or "Alien Enemy Control". [8]

J. Edgar Hoover described it as having come from his resurrected General Intelligence Division in Washington. [1] According to Hoover, it created large numbers of files on "individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in subversive activities", including espionage, and enabled the Bureau to immediately identify potential threats. [9] Congressman Vito Marcantonio called it "terror by index cards". Senator George W. Norris complained as well. [9]

The Custodial Detention Index was a list of suspects and potential subversives, classified as "A", "B" and "C"; the ones classified as "A" were destined to be arrested immediately and interned at the beginning of war. Category A were officials of Axis-related organizations, category B were members deemed "less dangerous" and category C were sympathizers. [10] The actual assignment of the categories was, however, based on the perceived individual commitment to the person's native country, rather than the actual potential to cause harm; officers of cultural organizations could be classified as "A".

The program involved creation of individual dossiers from information obtained secretly, including unsubstantiated data and in some cases, even hearsay and unsolicited telephone tips, and information acquired without judicial warrants by mail covers and interception of mail, wiretaps and covert searches. [1] While the program targeted primarily Japanese, Italian, and German "enemy aliens", it also included some native-born American citizens. The program was operated without Congress-approved legal authority, without judicial oversight and in excess of the legal authority of the FBI. A person against which an accusation was made was investigated and eventually placed on the index; it was not removed until the person died. [11] According to the press releases at the beginning of the war, one of the purposes of the program was to demonstrate the diligence and vigilance of the government by following, arresting and isolating a previously identified group of people with allegedly documented sympathies for Axis powers and potential for espionage or fifth column activities. The list was later used for Japanese American internment after Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066.[ citation needed ] Although some say Hoover actually opposed those measures, [12] Hoover and the FBI created the list from which 110,000 people were interned, 70,000 of which were American-born.

Attorney General Francis Biddle, upon learning of the Index in 1941, termed it "dangerous, illegal" and ordered its end. However, J. Edgar Hoover simply renamed it the Security Index, [13] and told his people not to mention it. [8]

Security Index/Reserve Index

American singer Paul Robeson's index card update form with check marks for which Index and Section Fbi index form1.png
American singer Paul Robeson's index card update form with check marks for which Index and Section

The Security Index pertained to the FBI list of dangerous people who might commit acts inimical to the national defense and public safety of the United States, in the eyes of the FBI, in time of emergency. [14] This included such "dangerous" figures as Martin Luther King Jr. [15] The list specified who could be arrested upon the order of a U.S. president invoking the Emergency Detention Program. [1] The Reserve Index, on the other hand, listed all left-wingers and people suspected of being a Communist. By 1950s, for instance, there were 5,000 names on the Security Index, while the Reserve Index had 50,000 in the Chicago field office. [16] A person listed in the Reserve Index could be transferred to the Security Index if such individual posed a threat to U.S. interests in a period of national emergency. [17] A difference between these indices involved their color scheme. The files of those of the Security Index were all in white while the Reserve Index varied in colors depending on the occupation of the subject. [16]

Prominent figures listed in the Reserve Index include Martin Luther King. [15] The FBI had been monitoring his activities with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference since 1957 and by 1962, he was finally listed in the FBI index due to the involvement of two of his advisers with the U.S. Communist Party, although he failed to meet the criteria for inclusion in the Security Index. [18]

The Security Index itself was merged with the Agitator Index and the Communist Index. Renamed the Reserve Index in 1960, this index included a Section A for teachers, doctors, lawyers, entertainers, and other people considered influential and not politically conservative.[ citation needed ] [19] Hoover had King added to the Reserve Index, Section A, in retaliation for his civil rights work and worldwide popularity. [20]

Renamed again to the Administrative Index (ADEX) in 1971 and discontinued during 1978, the records are still kept as inactive at FBI headquarters and 29 field offices.

Rabble Rouser Index

Rabble Rouser Index entry of Jesse Benjamin Stoner from 1967 notes he is suspected of bombing multiple black churches and schools. FBI Rabble Rouser index.pdf
Rabble Rouser Index entry of Jesse Benjamin Stoner from 1967 notes he is suspected of bombing multiple black churches and schools.

Records of names added to the Rabble Rouser Index are available online from The Vault, which hosts the FBI's FOIA Library, as part of FBI case file 157-HQ-7782. [22] The Internet Archive maintains a copy of this information with additional explanatory material. [23] In addition, a repository of FBI files obtained under FOIA request, including the Rabble Rouser Index, is maintained at the National Archives. [24]

People

Notable people include:

Categories

Notable categories listed on FBI form FD-307 include:

Administrative Index

FBI rep describing ADEX, 1975 Adex1.png
FBI rep describing ADEX, 1975

ADEX, or Administrative Index, lasted from 1971 to January 1978. It integrated the Security Index, the Agitator Index, and the Reserve Index. [26] It was used to track people "considered to be a threat to the security of the country". [25] ADEX had four 'categories'. [27]

An illustrative example of these files and the rationale for categorization is the case of historian Howard Zinn, a noted government critic. In his FBI files, there are two separate pages in which an agent says he should be in category III: [27]

He has been a member of the Communist Party, 1949–1953. A chief critic of the United States Government policies. A familiar figure at anti-war demonstrations up to 1972. Organized a protest rally to protest serious indictments against Father Berrigan and other members of the East Coast Conspiracy in the Summer of 1971

It is recommended that subject be included in ADEX, Category III, because he has participated in activities of revolutionary organizations within the last five years as evidenced by overt acts and statements established through reliable informants

Singer Paul Robeson's name was also on ADEX as Category III: "because of his long time close contact with CPUSA leaders. He was honored by the CP as recently as 1969". [28]

See also

Related topics:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COINTELPRO</span> Series of covert and illegal projects by the FBI

COINTELPRO was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations that the FBI perceived as subversive. Groups and individuals targeted by the FBI included feminist organizations, the Communist Party USA, anti–Vietnam War organizers, activists in the civil rights and Black power movements, environmentalist and animal rights organizations, the American Indian Movement (AIM), Chicano and Mexican-American groups like the Brown Berets and the United Farm Workers, independence movements, a variety of organizations that were part of the broader New Left, and white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the National States' Rights Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Bureau of Investigation</span> U.S. federal law enforcement agency

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U.S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Gandy</span> American civil servant (1897–1988)

Helen Wilburforce Gandy was the American longtime secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover, who called her "indispensable". Serving in that role for 54 years she exercised great behind-the-scenes influence on Hoover and the operations of the Bureau. Following Hoover's death in 1972, she spent weeks destroying his "Personal File," thought to contain the most incriminating material Hoover used to manipulate or blackmail the most powerful figures in Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Edgar Hoover</span> American law-enforcement administrator (1895–1972)

John Edgar Hoover was an American law-enforcement administrator who served as the final Director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). President Calvin Coolidge first appointed Hoover as director of the BOI, the predecessor to the FBI, in 1924. After 11 years in the post, Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 years until his death in May 1972 – serving a total of 48 years leading both the BOI and the FBI and under eight Presidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clyde Tolson</span> American lawyer

Clyde Anderson Tolson was the second-ranking official of the FBI from 1930 until 1972, from 1947 titled Associate Director, primarily responsible for personnel and discipline. He was the protégé and long-time top deputy of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Rex 84B, short for Readiness Exercise 1984 Bravo, was a classified scenario and drill developed by the United States federal government to detain large numbers of United States residents deemed to be "national security threats" in the event that the president declared a National Emergency. The scenario envisioned state defense forces rounding up 500,000 undocumented Central American residents and 4,000 American citizens whom the US Attorney General had designated as "national security threats" as part of the secret Continuity of Government program. These people would be detained at 22 military bases in concentration camps run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of Information Act (United States)</span> 1967 US statute regarding access to information held by the US government

The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, is the United States federal freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information and documents controlled by the U.S. government upon request. The act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures, and includes nine exemptions that define categories of information not subject to disclosure. The act was intended to make U.S. government agencies' functions more transparent so that the American public could more easily identify problems in government functioning and put pressure on Congress, agency officials, and the president to address them. The FOIA has been changed repeatedly by both the legislative and executive branches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William C. Sullivan</span> Federal Bureau of Investigation official

William Cornelius Sullivan was an assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who was in charge of the agency's domestic intelligence operations from 1961 to 1971. Sullivan was forced out of the FBI at the end of September 1971 due to disagreements with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The following year, Sullivan was appointed as the head of the Justice Department's new Office of National Narcotics Intelligence, which he led from June 1972 to July 1973. Sullivan died in a hunting accident in 1977. His memoir of his thirty-year career in the FBI, written with journalist Bill Brown, was published posthumously by commercial publisher W. W. Norton & Company in 1979.

Bela Gold, also Bill Gold, (1915–2012), was a Hungarian-born American businessman and professor.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been a staple of American popular culture since its christening in 1935. That year also marked the beginning of the popular "G-Man" phenomenon that helped establish the Bureau's image, beginning with the aptly titled James Cagney movie, G Men. Although the detective novel and other police-related entertainment had long enthralled audiences, the FBI itself can take some of the credit for its media prominence. J. Edgar Hoover, the Bureau's "patriarch", took an active interest to ensure that it was not only well represented in the media, but also that the FBI was depicted in a heroic, positive light and that the message, "crime doesn't pay", was blatantly conveyed to audiences. The context, naturally, has changed profoundly since the 1930s "war on crime", and especially so since Hoover's death in 1972.

Athan George Theoharis was an American historian, professor of history at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As well as his extensive teaching career, he was noteworthy as an expert on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, and U.S. intelligence agencies, having written and edited many books on these and related subjects.

<i>Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA</i> 1994 science book by Mark Riebling

Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA, a nonfiction book by American historian and policy analyst Mark Riebling, explores the conflict between U.S. domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence. The book presents FBI–CIA rivalry through the prism of national traumas—including the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, and 9/11—and argues that the agencies' failure to cooperate has seriously endangered U.S. national security.

Seth Rosenfeld is an American journalist. He is the author of Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power, published in hardback in 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in paperback in 2013 by Picador. Subversives was a New York Times best-seller and won the 2013 Ridenhour Prize for books; PEN Center USA's Literary Award for Research Nonfiction; the National Society of Professional Journalists' Sunshine Award; and the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

The DETCOM Program, along with the COMSAB Program formed part of the "Emergency Detention Program" (1946–1950) of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As FBI historian Athan Theoharis described in 1978, "The FBI compiled other lists in addition to the Security Index. These include a "Comsab program", and "Detcom program", and a Communist Index

<i>Counterattack</i> (newsletter) Extreme-right publication (1947–1955)

Counterattack was a weekly subscription-based, anti-communist, mimeographed newsletter that ran from 1947 to 1955. It was published by American Business Consultants, a "private, independent organization" started by three ex-Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD) is a national not-for-profit advocacy organization in the United States, dedicated to defending civil liberties, exposing government repression, and protecting the right of political dissent. DRAD was formed as the merger of the Defending Dissent Foundation (DDF) and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC). DRAD is currently active in defending the right to protest, opposing political surveillance, and campaigning against the prosecution of national security whistleblowers.

Jacob Spolansky was a Ukrainian-born American who rotated between government and private (corporate) investigative agencies as "part of a class of professional spies fostered by the growth of anticommmunism during the First World War and first Red Scare, perhaps best known as "chief of the 'red squad'", a "professional enemy of communism," and a key player in the government raid on the 1922 Bridgman Convention.

Ernie Lazar was an American researcher and a prolific Freedom of Information Act petitioner who amassed a "vast digital and documentary archive of government records on political extremists," used by many scholars, who regarded him as a "hero of researchers."

D.M. Ladd, AKA D. Milton Ladd and "Mickey" Ladd (1903–1960), was a special agent and assistant at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to its director J. Edgar Hoover, who was "one of the earliest members" of the FBI.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rights, United States Congress House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional (1975). FBI Oversight: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session ... U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 189–194.
  2. ↑ ACLU Massachusetts. "The Emergence of a Domestic Intelligence Bureaucracy". Privacy SOS. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  3. ↑ Oplinger, Jon T. (1990). The politics of demonology: the European witchcraze and the mass production of deviance. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna Univ. Pr. [u.a.] p. 133. ISBN   978-0-945636-11-3.
  4. ↑ Walker, Samuel (1990). In defense of American liberties. Internet Archive. Oxford University Press. p. 42. ISBN   978-0-19-504539-0.
  5. ↑ Gentry, Curt (1991). J. Edgar Hoover : the man and his secrets. Internet Archive. New York : Norton. p. 210. ISBN   978-0-393-02404-3.
  6. ↑ Riebling, Mark (1994). Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA . Alfred A Knopf. ISBN   978-0-7432-4599-9.
  7. 1 2 Gentry, Curt (1991). J. Edgar Hoover : the man and his secrets. Internet Archive. New York : Norton. p. 213. ISBN   978-0-393-02404-3.
  8. 1 2 Theoharis, Athan G. (1999). The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 20–21. ISBN   978-0-89774-991-6.
  9. 1 2 Gentry, Curt (2001-02-17). J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 213. ISBN   978-0-393-34350-2.
  10. ↑ Batvinis, Raymond J. (2007). The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence. University Press of Kansas. p. 94. ISBN   978-0-7006-1495-0.
  11. ↑ Preston, Audra. "Taken Into Custody: the Internment of German and Italian Americans during World War II". uvm.edu. University of Vermont personal homepage. Archived from the original on 28 November 2003. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  12. ↑ Le, C.N. (2020). "Construction and Destruction: Japanese American Internment". asian-nation.org. Dr. C.N. Le's personal website. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  13. ↑ Kelly, Jack (2002). "The Most Dangerous Institution". American Heritage Magazine . Vol. 53, no. 4. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  14. ↑ Zinn, Howard (2012). The Indispensable Zinn: The Essential Writings of the "People's Historian". New York: The New Press. pp.  142. ISBN   9781595586223.
  15. 1 2 United States Senate, Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (1976). "Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Final Report of Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports, Book III" (PDF). Retrieved 27 Apr 2024.
  16. 1 2 Swearingen, M. Wesley (1995). FBI Secrets. Boston, MA: South End Press. pp.  41. ISBN   0896085015.
  17. ↑ Babson, Steve; Elsila, David; Riddle, Dave (2010). The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 321. ISBN   9780814334966.
  18. ↑ Poveda, Tony; Rosenfeld, Susan; Powers, Richard Gid (1999). Theoharis, Athan (ed.). The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press. pp.  123. ISBN   9780897749916.
  19. ↑ Gennaro, Stephen; Kellner, Douglas. "Under surveillance: Herbert Marcuse and the FBI". Nature, Knowledge and Negation.
  20. ↑ Gentry, Curt (1991). J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 231 and following. ISBN   0393024040.
  21. ↑ "J. B. Stoner, 81, Fervent Racist and Benchmark for Extremism, Dies". New York Times . April 29, 2005. Retrieved 2010-12-31. While campaigning again for governor in 1977, [J. B. Stoner] was indicted on charges of bombing Bethel Church in Birmingham in 1958; there were no casualties. He was convicted in 1980 and served three and a half years of a 10-year sentence.
  22. ↑ "FBI Records: The Vault". vault.fbi.gov. Federal Bureau of Investigation . Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  23. ↑ Lazar, Ernie (5 July 2018). "FBI Rabble Rouser: Agitator Index — HQ 157-7782, Sections 1 thru 4". archive.org. Internet Archive's lazarfoia collection. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  24. ↑ "Digitized FBI Files: Freedom of Information Act". archives.gov. National Archives and Records Administration. 18 May 2016. Archived from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  25. 1 2 FBI FOIA on Surreptitious Entries (Black Bag Jobs), File 62-117-166, part 13&14 of 30, Hearings Before the Select Committee on Intelligence, Staff Interview, Nov 5 1975, Washington DC, Present: James Oliphant, John Atkisson, Richard Vermeire, and Wannall.
  26. ↑ FBI Central Records System, from FBI, by way of Federation of American Scientists, by way of archive.org
  27. 1 2 FBI FOIA files on Howard Zinn, Part 3 of 4, page 86-92 of the PDF
  28. ↑ FBI FOIA file on Paul Robeson Senior Page 29 of the PDF file.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.