J. Edgar Hoover
1895 – 1972 American first director of the FBI
Founding director of the FBI who ran the bureau for nearly half a century and built a vast, often abusive, domestic surveillance apparatus.
- Religion
- Presbyterian
- Affiliations
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover led the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its predecessor from 1924 until his death in 1972, making it a powerful and modern police agency. He also turned it into an instrument of political surveillance, keeping secret files on public figures and running the COINTELPRO program that spied on, harassed, and tried to discredit civil rights leaders, the left, and dissidents. His long tenure and hold over sensitive information made him hard for presidents to remove. His record is a central case in debates over the reach of the security state.
In the timeline
- 1908 Founding of the FBI the first director
- 1919 Palmer Raids target suspected radicals across the United States mentioned
- 1924 Federal Bureau of Investigation reorganized under J. Edgar Hoover central figure
- 1924 J. Edgar Hoover named Bureau director central figure
- 1924 FBI establishes a centralized fingerprint Identification Division mentioned
- 1924 J. Edgar Hoover's secret FBI files central figure
- 1953 Borden's letter accusing Oppenheimer mentioned
- 1956 FBI launches COINTELPRO mentioned
- 1963 Hoover calls FBI's Oswald handling 'gross incompetency' mentioned
- 1972 J. Edgar Hoover dies in office central figure