In 1971 a small group of citizens, horrified at the seemingly endless war in Vietnam and government harassment of peaceful organizers and civil rights and antiwar activists, mustered their courage and creativity and did something completely crazy: They burglarized an FBI office in the Philadelphia suburb of Media, Pennsylvania.
On the night of one of the biggest sporting events of the decade, they broke in and hauled off every document in the place. They spent the next weeks combing through the papers, copying the most damning and mailing them off to various journalists. They believed that once Congress members and the public knew, they'd do something to change FBI operations.
To their surprise and alarm, they discovered that their suspicions of FBI malfeasance had actually fallen short. The bureau was indeed spying on students and other nonviolent activists, and worse. By then the FBI had been under the ironclad leadership of the beloved and feared J. Edgar Hoover (Bettman/Corbis photo, in 1972, with President Richard Nixon) for almost a half century. Its charge was to "enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles" and "further serve to get the point across there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox."
The first journalist to write about what was in the purloined documents was a young reporter at the Washington Post, Betty Medsger. She would spend years covering the story, even after she left the Post. But even she did not know for many decades just who had snitched the documents that proved, among many grim revelations, that the FBI was specifically surveilling black student groups on college campuses and had attempted to blackmail Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into committing suicide.
The burglars kept their identities hidden -- until the publication this year of Medsger's book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI.
On Tuesday night, Sept. 30, 7 p.m. in Williams 225, Medsger will share this fascinating story, which she chronicles in the book. She'll also talk about how Wikileaks, Edward Snowden's NSA documents, and other revelations of government spying on citizens today relate to what happened in 1971.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A and book signing; Ithaca College is the first place to receive advance copies of the paperback version of this exciting book, which, although completely factual, reads like a cross between a crime thriller and a spy novel.
WHAT/WHO: "Before Edward Snowden: Journalist Betty Medsger on the Citizen Burglars Who Exposed FBI Political Spying -- in 1971"
WHEN: Tues., Sept. 30, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Williams 225
The event, sponsored by the Park Center for Independent Media, is free and open to all. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodation, please contact Brandy Hawley, bhawley@ithaca.edu; 607-274-3590.
Visit the Events Calendar for more information.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20140925150020444