Identifier

FBI_00150

Title

Informant Coverage of Racial Conditions

Creator

Ladd, D.M. (FBI)

Description

Memo sent to J. Edgar Hoover summarizing the surveys prepared by 39 FBI Field Offices regarding informant coverage with respect to racial conditions. Summaries indicate that Field Offices have done an inadequate job of extending coverage on racial conditions and there is significant cooperation with local law enforcement with agencies and Offices of Military and Naval Intelligences to gather information on racial matters. The last page of this document discusses work being done in Detroit, the Field Offices eight Black informants, and special agents providing information. It is important to note that this type of surveillance preceded the formalization of COINTELPRO. It is also contradictory to other memos stating that significant surveillance wasn’t taking place of Black and brown communities and sources of racial tensions/issues.

Source

100-HQ-135-Serial168-Excerpt, 14 September 1943, Federal Bureau of Investigation Records, "Foreign Inspired Agitation Among American Negroes", Detroit FBI Files - Black Freedom.

Theme

Criminalization and Resistance, Community and Resistance

Type

Government Records

Level 1 Tag

Surveillance

Government Correspondence

"Race

Racism

Racialization"

COINTELPRO

Resistance

Detroit

Level 2 Tag

Racial Unrest

Profiling

Informants

Infiltration

Abuse by Government

Race & Ethnic Identity

COINTELPRO - Foreign Inspired Agitation Among American Negroes

Racial Inequality

Level 3 Tag

Federal Bureau of Investigation

J. Edgar Hoover

Date

1943-09-14

Location

Washington D.C. & Detroit, MI

Rights

Public Domain acquired through Freedom of Information Act