So I just found out Thurgood Marshall was an FBI Informant
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jono
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Tuesday, December 3 1996; Page A02
The Washington Post
The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall maintained a secret relationship with the FBI during the 1950s, when he was a prominent civil rights lawyer, occasionally providing information to bureau officials and seeking advice from them, according to newly released FBI files.
Like many other civil rights leaders, Marshall often criticized the FBI publicly -- especially in the 1940s, when he demanded greater FBI efforts to investigate lynchings and other crimes against African Americans. Some 1,300 pages of FBI documents released in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act reveal another side to the relationship.
In 1956, for example, Marshall contacted a senior FBI official to say that he would be giving the keynote address at an upcoming annual convention of the NAACP. As reported in a memo to a top aide of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Marshall thought he "could do some good" by noting communist efforts to infiltrate civil rights groups and believed that "some general items as to what the communists are doing . . . could be used to good advantage." The memo said Marshall "stated that no one would know where he got the information and he wondered if I could be of any help to him."
At the time the FBI devoted considerable resources to running surveillance and harassment programs against alleged communists and others the agency considered to be subversive. The document suggests that the FBI's domestic intelligence division should come up with information for Marshall, but there is no account of how the matter was resolved.
"These documents are written from the FBI's point of view and what is missing entirely is any account of Marshall's motivations," said Alexander Charns, a North Carolina attorney and author, who has written extensively on the relationship between the judiciary and the FBI and who obtained the FBI files on Marshall.
"Marshall may have been trying to protect the NAACP from the kind of attacks that the FBI directed at other groups by convincing Hoover that they were part of the fight against communism or he may have been trying to develop a relationship so that the NAACP could count on more help from the FBI when it ran into trouble in the South. But, for sure, Marshall was no simple informant," Charns said.
The FBI files, which were first reported in USA Today, show a relationship that is "very complex and changed over time," Charns said.
In the 1940s Marshall harshly criticized the FBI for failing to investigate lynchings and other civil rights crimes forcefully enough, and in response Hoover openly stated his dislike of him, Charns said.
Then, in the 1950s, when Marshall was chief lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he cooperated with the FBI primarily on the issue of anti-communism.
"This is not surprising," said Taylor Branch, a historian of the civil rights era, "because at the time any number of civil rights leaders were telling the FBI how vigilant they were against communism because it was the only way they could survive in the highly charged politics of that era."
In the mid-1960s, when Marshall served as solicitor general in the Johnson administration, his attitude toward the FBI turned negative again as he criticized the agency's use of wiretaps and other surveillance measures in conversations with government officials that were reported back to the bureau, Charns said. Again Hoover became harshly negative toward Marshall.
Marshall served on the Supreme Court from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. He died in 1993.
http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/clippings/tgood.html
I do question it but seems legit. Here's a Link to FBI file on Thurgood Marshall if interested
The Washington Post
The late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall maintained a secret relationship with the FBI during the 1950s, when he was a prominent civil rights lawyer, occasionally providing information to bureau officials and seeking advice from them, according to newly released FBI files.
Like many other civil rights leaders, Marshall often criticized the FBI publicly -- especially in the 1940s, when he demanded greater FBI efforts to investigate lynchings and other crimes against African Americans. Some 1,300 pages of FBI documents released in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act reveal another side to the relationship.
In 1956, for example, Marshall contacted a senior FBI official to say that he would be giving the keynote address at an upcoming annual convention of the NAACP. As reported in a memo to a top aide of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Marshall thought he "could do some good" by noting communist efforts to infiltrate civil rights groups and believed that "some general items as to what the communists are doing . . . could be used to good advantage." The memo said Marshall "stated that no one would know where he got the information and he wondered if I could be of any help to him."
At the time the FBI devoted considerable resources to running surveillance and harassment programs against alleged communists and others the agency considered to be subversive. The document suggests that the FBI's domestic intelligence division should come up with information for Marshall, but there is no account of how the matter was resolved.
"These documents are written from the FBI's point of view and what is missing entirely is any account of Marshall's motivations," said Alexander Charns, a North Carolina attorney and author, who has written extensively on the relationship between the judiciary and the FBI and who obtained the FBI files on Marshall.
"Marshall may have been trying to protect the NAACP from the kind of attacks that the FBI directed at other groups by convincing Hoover that they were part of the fight against communism or he may have been trying to develop a relationship so that the NAACP could count on more help from the FBI when it ran into trouble in the South. But, for sure, Marshall was no simple informant," Charns said.
The FBI files, which were first reported in USA Today, show a relationship that is "very complex and changed over time," Charns said.
In the 1940s Marshall harshly criticized the FBI for failing to investigate lynchings and other civil rights crimes forcefully enough, and in response Hoover openly stated his dislike of him, Charns said.
Then, in the 1950s, when Marshall was chief lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he cooperated with the FBI primarily on the issue of anti-communism.
"This is not surprising," said Taylor Branch, a historian of the civil rights era, "because at the time any number of civil rights leaders were telling the FBI how vigilant they were against communism because it was the only way they could survive in the highly charged politics of that era."
In the mid-1960s, when Marshall served as solicitor general in the Johnson administration, his attitude toward the FBI turned negative again as he criticized the agency's use of wiretaps and other surveillance measures in conversations with government officials that were reported back to the bureau, Charns said. Again Hoover became harshly negative toward Marshall.
Marshall served on the Supreme Court from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. He died in 1993.
http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/clippings/tgood.html
I do question it but seems legit. Here's a Link to FBI file on Thurgood Marshall if interested
Comments
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Damn, it had to be him
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Cant call it. Like the article alluded to, we cant really speak on what it took to survive in that era. I mean the cops, let alone the Hoover FBI, could flat out ? you and the people around u with no retribution....10x worse than today.
Maybe he gave non essential info just to keep them at arms length. At least i hope so. -
Lol Thurgood? Thuurr-goood?
silly name -
Excuse me if I call bs on this. Like we really gonna take their word during that era. Pass.
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I can't judge the man without hearing his point of view. But this doesn't surprise me, there is no way you can stifle a powerful movement like we had at that time then having some leaders on their side
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That's my biggest hang up honestly, this was released after he died so he had no opportunity to speak on it one way or the other.
Having read MLK's book Strength To Love I know how desperate the times were, maybe he really believed he was helping the cause... -
NAACP been suspect.
Amerikkka went on a killing spree with every other black movement, but they let these ? flourish? That's like homie getting out the next day, when you hear he got 15 years. ? don't add up. Word on the street is that the jews are the head of that ? as well. -
Not surprised at all. He clearly had Political aspirations seeing has he went on to be a Supreme Court Justice.
You have to be selected by the President to get to this level. -
If you actually bothered reading the article, you'd realize there's nothing insidious about this.
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Lamilton3000 wrote: »
supppaaaaaaaaa -
? tell tell tell lol
? it im a start randomly naming white people as communists
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Cooning seems to be African American's most favorite pastime.
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Thurrgood?
Lmao -
Not surprised at all. He clearly had Political aspirations seeing has he went on to be a Supreme Court Justice.
You have to be selected by the President to get to this level.
Yeah man that's the same thing I was thinking. It stands to reason that he benefitted from being an informant if he indeed was one.soul rattler wrote: »If you actually bothered reading the article, you'd realize there's nothing insidious about this.
There nothing wrong with someone within an organization giving information to the government knowing the government doesn't like that organization and looking for any reason to destroy it?NAACP been suspect.
Amerikkka went on a killing spree with every other black movement, but they let these ? flourish? That's like homie getting out the next day, when you hear he got 15 years. ? don't add up. Word on the street is that the jews are the head of that ? as well.
Jews helped create the NAACP, some of the founders were Jewish. Some of the biggest financers of the civil rights movement period were Jewish.
The NAACP was also very careful in what they got involved in, they didn't take too many chances. They like fighting in the courts while other black organizations were in the streets. -
1. I'm realizing that some of you ? have never heard of Thurgood Marshall before this thread. SMH.
2. What is there to judge him on? He ain't do ? wrong. Article didn't seem to indicate that he gave any information to the FBI about ? other than communism, etc. Even if he did, so what? Unless he was in the office telling Hoover the inner-workings of the NAACP so that Hoover to dismantle it, who cares? -
soul rattler wrote: »If you actually bothered reading the article, you'd realize there's nothing insidious about this.
I said we have to reserve judgment, but we cant go this far either Lol
We dont know what info he gave. Its just that since he'd dead, outta respect, we cant speculate. But to say clearly, definitively, after reading a 100 word article that there's 'nothing insidious', is not possible. -
This ?
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Never hung out with him before, im good.
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His name was always hilarious to me
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If he was he was a double agent
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Of course he did all these slick backed haired ? was coonin
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If true I understand what he was trying to do. With that said you can never trust an informant. Once a snitch always a snitch.
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