History @ CUL

Past FBI surveillance provides rich source material for present & future historians

Cornell University Library has purchased access to two new digital collections from Gale Cengage Learning’s Archives Unbound. They are available to Cornellians via the links below or through the library catalogs by title.

 

Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920–1984

Summary
Between the early 1920s and early 1980s, the Justice Department and its Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged in widespread investigation of those deemed politically suspect. Prominent among the targets of this sometimes coordinated, sometimes independent surveillance were aliens, members of various protest groups, Socialists, Communists, pacifists, militant labor unionists, ethnic or racial nationalists and outspoken opponents of the policies of the incumbent presidents.

Date Range: 1920-1984
Source Library: FBI Library

A follower of Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, waits outside a UNIA club in New York City.

Description
Black Americans of all political persuasions were subject to federal scrutiny, harassment and prosecution. The FBI enlisted black “confidential special informants” to infiltrate a variety of organizations. Hundreds of documents in this collection were originated by such operatives. The reports provide a wealth of detail on “Negro” radicals and their organizations that can be found nowhere else.

More detail at Gale Cengage Learning Unbound Archives

 

 

National Security and the FBI Surveillance of Enemy Aliens

Summary
This collection provides insight into the recent history of the surveillance of aliens and national security during World War II and the early postwar period.

Date Range: 1940-1978
Content: 29,061 pages
Source Library: FBI Headquarters Library

 

A letter discussing and listing some of the German-Americans suspected and arrested during WWII.

Description

The Custodial Detention Index (CDI), or Custodial Detention List was formed in 1939-1941, in the frame of a program called variously the “Custodial Detention Program” or “Alien Enemy Control.” J. Edgar Hoover described it as having come from his resurrected General Intelligence Division — “This division has now compiled extensive indices of individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in subversive activities, in espionage activities, or any activities that are possibly detrimental to the internal security of the United States. The Indexes have been arranged not only alphabetically but also geographically, so that at any rate, should we enter into the conflict abroad, we would be able to go into any of these communities and identify individuals or groups who might be a source of grave danger to the security of this country. These indexes will be extremely important and valuable in a grave emergency.”

From Gale Cengage Learning Archives Unbound

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