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Sam Pollard tells @jelani9 that J. Edgar Hoover must have thought,"How dare a Black man try to change the America I grew up in?" Have historians resolved whether J. Edgar Hoover was passing for white? https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/segments/how-far-has-fbi-gone-protect-white-supremacy
In 1998, retired Black educator Willie McGhee published a book, "Secrets Uncovered: J. Edgar Hoover - Passing for White?" that included family stories and genealogical research asserting that Hoover was a relative. https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Uncovered-Edgar-Hoover-Passing/dp/0970182201
According to McGhee, there was an underground network in cities such as Washington DC helping light-skinned Black people learn how to make their way in the white world. She said the family told her that revealing the secret could get her and her family killed.
Early in his career, Hoover helped Woodrow Wilson's Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, carry out the infamous Palmer raids - arrests of purported subversives that were later deemed unwarranted. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-massive-raids-during-the-red-scare
Hoover relentlessly pursued Marcus Garvey, ultimately leading to the nationalist leader's conviction for mail fraud in 1923. This was the same charge that the federal government used to stop Callie House's ex-slave pension movement. https://vault.fbi.gov/marcus-garvey
I don't know whether Hoover was trying to hide his African ancestry. We do now know that at the same time that he was trying to punish Dr. King for his alleged sexual transgressions, rumors and innuendo swirled about his own sexuality. https://daily.jstor.org/the-truth-about-j-edgar-hoovers-cross-dressing/
If Hoover's efforts to uphold white supremacy and patriarchy partially arose from his own effort to pass, there might be some value in looking at him in the context of the interracial tensions and class dynamics that existed among Black people in the early 20th century.
I'm reminded of writers who were grappling with these identity issues while Hoover was growing up and coming into young adulthood - Charles Chesnutt, Jessie Fauset, Walter White, James Weldon Johnson... curious to know whether scholars are looking at Hoover through this lens.
