Six Women Targeted by the FBI

I have a historical beef with J. Edgar Hoover.

He led the FBI for 48 years, from 1924 until his death in 1972. He created a law enforcement agency that ran with extreme abuses of power, operating outside the judicial system and enacting personal vendettas through misinformation, planting evidence, illegal surveillance, and harassment.

He held the position for so long in part due to his running log of secrets on presidents, threatening blackmail if they dared to question him. He amassed embarrassing details on fidelity and sexual lives of politicians.

He had a long list of enemies and used the bureau as a personal propaganda machine.

They labeled every social justice movement as communism, and anyone who held views he didn’t like was on the docket for retaliation.

Here is a list of some surprising women targeted by this corrupt FBI, and their “offenses” were proof that this country has never supported free speech like we claim to.

1. Eleanor Roosevelt

   

   You know I’m going to take every opportunity to talk about my favorite historical figure. Hoover hated her. Especially when she accused the FBI of acting like the Gestapo. She was incredibly progressive for her time, fighting for anti-lynching laws, voting rights, civil rights, and women’s rights. All things Hoover vowed to fight against. He wanted women quiet and submissive, and this Eleanor was not.

   They had a 38-year investigation on her, tracking “communist, anti-American” behaviors.

   The full file is available on the FBI website.

2. Helen Keller

   

   Surveillance on Keller lasted from the 1930s through the Cold War era. Keller was a well-known disability advocate, but she was also incredibly subversive. As a member of the socialist party, she criticized capitalism and used her platform to advocate for women’s rights, birth control access, and labor rights. She was a co-founder of the ACLU, and you can imagine what Hoover thought of protecting indivisual rights…

   Her full FBI file can be found here.

3. Aretha Franklin

   

   The FBI tracked any of Aretha’s association with Black Power movements. And they followed her for 40 years. She was close friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, a favorite of the bureau’s target list. The bureau did not like her involvement with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They looked for any sign of “violent acts” through her support of the civil rights movement. They never found any, but still tracked her until her death. 1

4. Eartha Kitt

   

   In 1968, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson welcomed women to a White House luncheon to bolster support for her husband’s political agenda. She invited Eartha Kitt because of her work with a non-profit organization aimed at reducing youth crime, and she had previously supported President Johnson’s legislation in that area. By this time Eartha had just hit a new level of fame due to her portrayal of Catwoman. Outspoken as ever, she pushed back about access to childcare, but she didn’t stop there. She spoke against the Vietnam War, stating how it disproportionately affected minorities.

   This bold act left her blacklisted from Hollywood. The FBI and CIA compiled a dossier, surveilling her and pushing the notion of her being “unpatriotic.” She couldn’t get work in the US for over a decade.2

5. Lucille Ball

   

   The FBI liked to hide behind “communist” activities, and they used this as an excuse to open a confidential file on Lucy, who registered to vote under the Communist Party in 1936 and 1938. In 1953, she was brought before the House Committee for Un-American Activities to testify about her allegiances. They continued to track her. I have to think that Hoover had an issue with her power. She was a bold powerhouse in Hollywood who married a Cuban man. It was well known that Hoover disliked Desilu, their production company, for making “The Untouchables.” He was jealous that the movie gave credit to Treasury agents for fighting Capone—and not the FBI.

6. Lorraine Hansberry

   

Lorraine Hansberry was the creator of A Raisin in the Sun and Hoover took personal issue with this story. The FBI monitored the progress of the play even before it premiered on Broadway. Prior to that 1959 debut, they tracked Hansberry seven years earlier, concerned by her association with a Harlem-based newspaper which called out racism, labor abuse, and colonialism. Hoover had a special dislike for Black writers, constantly worrying about their influence. They tracked Hansberry for years through multiple successes on the stage, amassing over one thousand pages, which only stopped after her death. 3 4

And a few bonus names I couldn’t leave out:

I often think about Charlotta Spears Bass.

Though you may not have heard her name, she was a powerhouse in the civil rights movement. She devoted her life to fighting the KKK through her newspaper, documenting the Klan’s lies in an attempt to bring down Black leaders. She sued the KKK for libel and won. She was the first Black VP candidate when the progressive party nominated her for their ticket. She supported voting rights and turned her garage into a reading room and voting registration site. Even as a bedridden 90 year-old, FBI agents were positioned outside her nursing home to monitor for any subversive activities.

Josephine Baker spent the war years smuggling Nazi intel to the Allies in invisible ink on her sheet music, and returned to a country that wouldn’t serve her food at a lunch counter. So she fought for equality, and landed on the FBI list with her visa revoked. They followed her for years.

These women were powerful because of their voices. Their unshakeable commitment to truth and their audacity to question authority. Never underestimate the power of your voice. Your message. Words and inspiration sent these ladies to the top of Hoover’s watch list. But they never backed down. They embodied courage and didn’t let intimidation soften their message.

If you want more stories of women who broke the rules, check out my book The Secret Courtesan. And thank you for reading Badass Women in History.

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