Revised and Updated FEDERAL SURVEILLANCE OF AFRO-AMERICANS (1917-1925): The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES: Microfilms from Major Archival and Manuscript Collections August Meier and Elliott Rudwick General Editors FEDERAL SURVEILLANCE OF AFRO-AMERICANS (1917-1925): The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement FEDERAL SURVEILLANCE OF AFRO-AMERICANS (1917-1925): The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement Edited by Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. Associate Editors Randolph Boehm and R. Dale Grinder Guide Compiled by Martin Schipper A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA, INC. 44 North Market Street • Frederick, MD 21701 NOTE ON SOURCES Materials reproduced in this microfilm publication derive from the National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Washington Federal Records Center, Suitland, Maryland; Federal Records Centers in Ft. Worth, Texas and Bayonne, New Jersey; and from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom of Information Act Office. Materials from the National Archives include selections from: Record Group 28, U.S. Postal Service Record Group 32, U.S. Shipping Board Record Group 38, Office of Naval Intelligence Record Group 59, U.S. Department of State Record Group 60, U.S. Department of Justice Record Group 65, Federal Bureau of Investigation Record Group 165, War Department: General and Special Staffs- Military Intelligence Division Materials from the Washington Federal Records Center, Suitland, Maryland include selections from: Record Group 165, War Department: General and Special Staffs- Military Intelligence Division Record Group 185, U.S. Panama Canal Commission Materials from the Federal Records Centers in Ft. Worth, Texas and Bayonne, New Jersey include selections from: Record Group 21, Records of U.S. District Courts Record Group 276, Records of U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal EDITORIAL NOTE For each record group and subseries listed in the user's guide, all materials relevant to the federal surveillance of Afro-Americans have been reproduced on this film with the exception of RG 165 as noted in the Introduction. Where indications of "selections" are made, i.e., for some files in record groups 32, 59, 60, and 165, only those documents pertinent to surveillance of Afro- Americans have been extracted from files containing other extraneous materials. Copyright © 1986 by University Publications of America, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-89093-741-9. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ix Note on Bureau of Investigation Casefile Numbers xxi Reel Index Reel 1 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 From Freedom of Information Act 1 Reel 2 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. From Freedom of Information Act cont 1 Reel 3 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. From Freedom of Information Act cont 2 Reel 4 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. From Freedom of Information Act cont 2 Reel 5 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. From Freedom of Information Act cont 2 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation: Mexican Files 3 Miscellaneous Files 3 Reel 6 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Miscellaneous Files cont 4 Bureau Section Files 4 Reel 7 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Bureau Section Files cont 4 Reel 8 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Bureau Section Files cont 5 Old German Files 6 Reel 9 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Old German Files cont 6 Reel 10 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Old German Files cont 10 Reel 11 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Old German Files cont 13 Reel 12 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cont.: Old German Files cont 17 Reel 13 Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation Surveillance of Black Americans, 1916-1925 cont. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 65 Federal Bureau of Investigation cent.: Old German Files cont 19 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 28 U.S. Postal Service Records relating to the Espionage Act, World War I 22 Reel 14 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 60 Department of Justice Straight Numerical Files, 1904-1937 23 Reel 15 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 60 Department of Justice cont. Straight Numerical Files, 1904-1937 cont 23 Reel 16 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 60 Department of Justice cont. Straight Numerical Files, 1904-1937 cont 24 Glasser File 24 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 32 U.S. Shipping Board Subject Classified General Files, 1920-1936 24 Dockets of the Board, 1917-1933 24 Subject Classified General Files, 1920-1936 [Addendum] 25 Reel 17 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59 U.S. Department of State Entry 535--Office of the Counselor, Central File, 1917-1928 25 Decimal File, 1910-1929 .25 Reel 18 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59 U.S. Department of State cont. Decimal File, 1910-1929 cont 25 Entry 535-Office of the Counselor, Central File, 1917-1928 [Addendum] 26 Reel 19 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 165 War Department: General and Special Staffs-Military Intelligence Division Military Intelligence Division, Series 10218 27 Reel 20 National Archives and Records Administration, RG165 War Department: General and Special Staffs-Military Intelligence Division cont. Military Intelligence Division, Series 10218 cont 33 Reel 21 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 165 War Department: General and Special Staffs-Military Intelligence Division cont. Military Intelligence Division, Series 10218 cont 35 Reel 22 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 165 War Department: General and Special Staffs-Military Intelligence Division cont. Miscellaneous Files 38 Reel 23 Washington Federal Records Center, Suitland, Maryland, RG 165 War Department: General and Special Staffs-Military Intelligence Division cont. Military Intelligence Division PF Files 40 Washington Federal Records Center, Suitland, Maryland, RG 185 Panama Canal Commission General Records, 1914-1950 42 Alpha Files 42 National Archives and Records Administration, RG 38 Office of Naval Intelligence Confidential Correspondence, 1913-1924 42 Reel 24 Federal Records Center, Fort Worth, Texas, RG 21 Records of U.S. District Courts 42 Federal Records Center, Forth Worth, Texas, RG 276 Records of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals 42 Federal Records Center, Bayonne, New Jersey, RG 21 Records of U.S. District Courts 43 Federal Records Center, Bayonne, New Jersey, RG 276 Records of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals 43 Reel 25 Federal Records Center, Bayonne, New Jersey, RG 276 Records of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cont 43 Subject Index 45 INTRODUCTION by Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. Professor of Afro-American Studies San Diego State University The First World War and the subsequent Red Scare years establish two benchmarks in American civil liberties. At no other time in the nation's history, before or after, was the Bill of Rights so freely transgressed. Second, these years mark the birth of modern political surveillance in the United States. During the late teens and early twenties of the present century the Justice Department and its Bureau of Investigation (renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935), the intelligence branches of the Army and Navy, the State and Post Office Departments, and other agencies of the federal bureaucracy 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, opponents of World War I, militant labor unionists, ethnic or racial nationalists, and outspoken opponents of the policies of the incumbent presidents. Black Americans in all of the above categories were subject to federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution. The era is hardly notable for scrupulous attention to the First and Fourth Amendments to the federal constitution. Blacks who opposed World War I or the selective service, those who advocated self-defense during the race riots of the "Red Summer" of 1919, or those who were involved in radical labor unions fared no better at the hands of federal agencies than black Communists and Socialists, as well as members of the black nationalist Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), headed by the charismatic Marcus Garvey. Disapproval of all of the foregoing was legion among the white majority population. It took no great public pressure to persuade the Bureau of Investigation, Military Intelligence Division, and other worried agencies to conduct surveillance of a wide range of black figures, both well-known and obscure. Many white Americans, in and out of government, perceived militant blacks as doubly threatening to the American way of life: threatening for their advocacy of radical or dissident or nationalistic political ideas; and threatening because any gains they made would lead to changes in the racial status quo that were disquieting to many whites. Modern political surveillance in the United States had its birth during World War I and the Red Scare period. The Bureau of Investigation was the leading character in this drama. It transformed itself, with little congressional interference, from a relatively insignificant component of the Justice Department into a large, bureaucratized, and semi-autonomous agency, defining itself as the guardian of the nation's security against foreign and domestic forces and individuals representing numerous dangerous "-isms." Much of the credit for this expansion of mission could be claimed by young J. Edgar Hoover, who as a special assistant to the Attorney General, organized and headed the General Intelligence Division (or "anti-radical division") of the Bureau. Hoover also spearheaded the Bureau's efforts after 1919 to silence black radical publications, neutralize black Socialists and Communists, and cripple the one truly mass-based black movement, the nationalistic UNIA. Several directors of the Bureau of Investigation presided over its rapid expansion. During the tenure of A. Bruce Bielaski, who served from 1912 to early 1919, the Bureau devoted considerable attention to investigating allegations of peonage. Blacks figured most prominently as victims, not perpetrators, in this category of crime; hence only a small sampling of such cases is included in this collection. (Those interested in a further exploration of this topic should make use of Record Groups 60 and 65 in the National Archives, particularly the casefiles in RG 65, microfilm reels 908-909, which contain the peonage case classification, Bureau Section 50-.) Partisan politics came under the purview of the Bureau when it was widely suspected that blacks who moved from the South to the urban industrial centers of the North and Midwest in the "Great Migration" would be manipulated by Republican political machines in the fall elections in 1916. Naturally such rumors alarmed the incumbent Democratic administration. Despite an enormous expenditure of time and manpower, the Bureau under Bielaski uncovered little evidence to sustain court action. The documentation on this topic, however, is important not only for illuminating this fear, but in revealing the dynamics of the most widespread internal migration of Afro-Americans up to that time. Interviews with numerous migrants clearly reveal the hopes and aspirations of the 1.5 million who forsook their southern homes between 1916 and 1930 for the dream of a Promised Land in the North. American entry into World War I in 1917 and the institution of conscription resulted in a rapid expansion of both Bureau mission and personnel. Agents assumed major responsibility for ferreting out enemy aliens and disloyal citizens, as well as those who might be their dupes. Many whites, including Bureau personnel, acting on racial stereotypes and their own fears, believed that blacks would be particularly receptive to the blandishments of German enemies or their surrogates, such as disgruntled Mexicans. Several hundred casefiles document these fears, although the Bureau rarely found evidence to substantiate its suspicions. Congress responded to the wartime crisis by