In early 1965, as Marin Luther King prepared to embark on his historic campaign to march for voting rights in Selma and Montgomery, and at the same time execute the delicate task of publicly enlisting the LBJ White House in the battle for federal voting rights legislation, the FBI mailed the odious “suicide letter” to... Read More

Martin, Thurgood…and J. Edgar? The Preacher, the Black Cardinal, and the Grand Inquisitor I highly recommend Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. Reading it in the context of Ferguson, Garner, etc. this book really f*cked me up, as they say nowadays. Based on... Read More

When it comes to intelligence, everybody, be they democracies, dictatorships, or in between, wants it all. That includes the intelligence agencies--who treasure data as the wellspring of their effectiveness, influence, and leverage--and the presidents and prime ministers at the top of the heap—who are supposedly looking out for Joe Sixpack and his rights. No leader... Read More