Read While Your Coffee Cools
Last week, I detailed how the FBI quite literally told Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to kill himself, to which I received strong feedback as well as a couple “are you sure this is true?” comments - not ones questioning my own academic integrity, but doubling down on the disbelief which sprung while reading the post.
This week, however, we are going to accomplish two of my favorite goals:
Convincing you that the predominate, most accurate lens to view American History through is one of Power.
History is messy.
It’s Easy To Be At Odds
…with the history of J. Edgar Hoover. On the one hand, he was unopposed to the idea of the nation’s foremost Civil Rights leader being dead. On the other, he desired the downfall of the KKK. But before I tackle the query of “how can both be true?” I have to tell you this story. And it promises to be a brief one.
Robert Shelton
…was a car salesman and printer, but is etched into History as the leader of one of America’s most violent hate groups. He rose up the ranks to become an Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America - a group formed to rally other White Supremacy splinters during the Klan’s tumultuous time in the sixties.
Shelton thought of the Klan as a religion and was upset with the disunity it showed during Roy Davis’ tenure at the helm. Therefore, he proclaimed himself as the one who could consolidate those who split apart from Davis and the larger, more well-known KKK. His violent, zero-sum conception of race relations in America drew the ire of the FBI and more importantly, their attention.
What Followed
…was an intelligence effort to limit the power of White Supremacy and perhaps end the movement altogether. Amongst the FBI’s plans was one attempt to embarrass Shelton into insignificance. How? By spreading a “joke book” among Klan members, one which ridiculed Shelton.
Titled United Klowns of America, Inc, the book was admittedly “light in presentation.” Yet, the FBI understood how “sensitive to ridicule” the Klan was. After all, deploying magical titles for ranking members and wearing bedsheets during rituals doesn’t exactly scream self-confidence. Hence, a pamphlet was issued poking fun at such boyish, moronic and discriminatory nonsense.
It was recommended that one hundred copies of the book be printed and distributed to members, with the intention of presenting their institution from “a different vantage point.” In other words, this was an attempt to force White Supremacists into a bit of self reflection with the hopes they’ll realize their prepubescent behavior. Not very well thought out.
Was Their Plot Effective?
Not really. Shelton may have had his feelings hurt, but the Klan lived on. In fact, it still lives on today, whether through clandestine meetings or social media posts. Additionally, White Supremacy has masqueraded as a pseudoscience and morphed into other forms of vile idiocy.
There are no shortage of undoxable Twitter trolls who cite studies on genetic determinism to spew Race Science as immutable fact. (Please, take a moment to read this relevant article on Elon Musk and his recent Twitter commentary on the matter.)
Back To Those Goals I Talked About Earlier
Yes, History is indeed messy. The man who encouraged the suicide of Martin Luther King was also trying to bring down the KKK. The summit of critical thinking can only be reached when one not only accepts complexities in life, but can hold them in his or her head at the same time.
Secondly, this blog - with any luck - reveals the framework in which I perceive American History. It is one of Power. Whether it is through chaining women to the household, curtailing the liberties of minority groups or manipulating the Supreme Court to allow unlimited spending (re: bribery) during election season, folks in power have tried endlessly to retain it. Consider J. Edgar Hoover.
If you want to know why he despised both the Klan and Dr. King, it is because his status as the dispenser of power was threatened. It was Mr. Hoover who kept secret audio tapes on former presidents and their mistresses. It was Mr. Hoover who identified those wanting to decentralize and redistribute American democracy so he could outcast them as Communists. It was Mr. Hoover who relentless ignored the constraints of federal statutes to amass blackmail on anyone who threatened his intelligence fiefdom.
It did not matter if it was a single person or a 30,000 person organization. If Hoover thought a movement had the potential to act successfully without his explicit permission, then he sought to eliminate it. Unfortunately, such blinding ambition still exists in this nation today.