Ithaca College

How did a group of "ordinary" citizens find the courage to take on one of the most powerful institutions, run by one of the most powerful men, in the country? And how did they manage to break into FBI offices, cart off thousands of pages of documents, and vanish without a trace? And how did they get away with airing the bureau's dirty laundry and exposing its political spying? Further, how did they keep their identities secret from 1971 until this very year?

Find out tomorrow (Tues. Sept. 23) at 7:00 p.m. in Textor 103. There will be a screening of 1971, the film based on their gripping story, followed by a Q&A with Jeff Cohen, Park Center for Independent Media director and associate professor of journalism, who has written about the FBI, NSA, and government malfeasance.

Free and open to all. Bring a friend . . . or several.

Presented by the Park Center for Independent Media, which will host a related event one week later, on Tues. Sept. 30, 7:00 p.m. in Williams 225: a talk by Betty Medsger, the Washington Post journalist who was among the few who received the purloined documents and reported on their contents. She covered the story for many years, and it was not until the publication of her book, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, in 2014 that the identities of some of the citizen burglars were revealed.

Individuals requiring accommodation are asked to contact Brandy Hawley, bhawley@ithaca.edu, 607-274-3590.