Lerone A. Martin

Oct 10, 2023 | bostonreview.net | Jeanne Theoharis |Lerone A. Martin

On this day sixty years ago, October 10, 1963, the Department of Justice signed a memo granting the FBI permission to conduct technical, wall-to-wall surveillance on Martin Luther King, Jr. The eloquence and reach of King following the March on Washington had so alarmed the Kennedy administration and the bureau that six weeks later they felt drastic steps had to be taken.

Oct 10, 2023 | time.com | Lerone A. Martin

Sixty years after the FBI marked Martin Luther King Jr. as America’s “most dangerous Negro,” the FBI incorporates the preacher in its new agent training, pledging to honor King by upholding the civil rights of all citizens. While this appears to signal a critical shift in the institution’s culture, nothing could be further from the truth.

Mar 4, 2023 | thenation.com | Beverly Gage |Lerone A. Martin |Adam Hochschild |Cole Stangler

This article appears in the March 20/27, 2023 issue. J. Edgar Hoover, we’ve always assumed, became the most powerful unelected American of his time because he had the goods on everybody: the mistresses, financial shenanigans, and underworld connections of presidents who might fire him and legislators who might investigate him. Two new books about the longtime FBI chief make you realize that there was something else as well.

Feb 28, 2023 | foreignaffairs.com | Beverly Gage |Lerone A. Martin |Jessica T. Mathews |Joshua Kurlantzick

In This Review In This Review G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism Two new books explore the life and times of J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI director was a font of contradictions, posing an unusual challenge for a biographer.

Feb 7, 2023 | nyjournalofbooks.com | Lerone A. Martin

“solid, mostly engaging, offering an undeniable insight into the ongoing movement to return America to what the White Nationalist movement sees as its foundational principles.”The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover is an account of religious conquest that comes as close as any other book to getting at the elusive “why” of J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover is historically a man of “whats” who wielded his power capriciously to various ends ruining uncountable lives in the process.