From 1918 into the early Twenties, any African Americans who spoke out for their race - editors, union organizers, civil rights advocates, radical political activists, and Pan-Africanists - were likely to be investigated by a network of federal intelligence agencies. This book presents an account in the history of American political intelligence.

The Bureau of Investigation, as the FBI was then known, in partnership with army and navy intelligence and the State and Post Office departments, used surveillance, break-ins, infiltration, agents provocateurs, and prosecution to try to destroy black movements, publications, and leaders. Black agents and undercover informants played key roles in these efforts. The Bureau's anti-radical campaign was led by young J. Edgar Hoover, who became convinced that black militancy - including the demand for civil rights - was communist-inspired and a threat to both national security and white hegemony, views which would guide the FBI into the 1970s.