FBI tracked Studs Terkel for decades, documents show

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11/fbi-tracked-studs-terkel-for-decades-documents-show.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChicagoBreakingNews+%28Chicago+Breaking+News%29

November 18, 2009 4:14 AM | No Comments
Chicago storyteller Studs Terkel continues to captivate us, even in death.

Turns out the author, radio host, actor and activist sought a job at the FBI, according to recently released documents.

Terkel, who died last year at 96, applied for a job in the fingerprints division in the 1930s. "It's a non-agent position," FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. "You would have to go through a background investigation, the same as you would for an agent, but you don't have arrest powers."

Imagine the Terkel-size void in Chicago's chronicles had he gotten the job.

Instead of hiring him, the agency began amassing a file on Terkel. The FBI spent 45 years tracking Terkel as a suspected communist, according to his 269-page dossier. Only 147 pages were released. The file was obtained by the City University of New York's NYCity News Service under an act that requires the FBI to release certain documents to the public after a person has died.

Terkel's paper trail started in 1945. It references Terkel speaking at a Paul Robeson rally at Chicago's Civic Opera House and quotes a source who questioned Terkel's "loyalty to the United States" because he worked with the BBC on a piece about the "sordid side of life in Chicago."

[ixion]

1. The FBI obviously has too much time and money on their hands...

they could use some defunding, and a tightening of their mission statement to go after criminals, rather than spying on American citizens.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Your tax dollars at work.

And yet we can't think of any way to save money but cutting social services.

[Ikonoklast]

3. Hoover still reaching from the grave with cold, dead hands.

[monmouth]

8. Agreed. He makes Cheney look almost....well, ........n/t

[mucifer]

4. Gotta K and R any Studs thread. Thanks. He frequently discussed how he was

blacklisted in the '50s for his political views.

Studs was a great author and a wonderful radio personality and interviewer. He had a local radio show in Chicago from the '50s thru the '90s with poets authors musicians and activists.

I'm sad he's gone.

[Solly Mack]

5. I miss him

[KharmaTrain]

6. And Studs Knew It....

I had the unique pleasure of meeting and speaking with Studs many times over the years. First time I was 14 and sat in on his radio show...the man amazed me with not only his passion but knowledge on so many topics. He was one of those who would say "shut up and listen, kid"...and you did. His stories about the 1937 Inland Steel strike (that turned bloody) is a classic as he was on those front lines and came close to taking a bullet from over-zealous cops.

IRC, Studs was a constant on Hoover's radar and made it to Nixon's enemies list. But Studs didn't care...and we're fortunate for to have had such a strong defender of the working man. The more heat that was put on him, the louder he became. Our labor movement could really use another Studs.

[Vinnie From Indy]

7. It seems if you had a shred of common sense and decency

in the era Terkel grew up in that you were tracked by the FBI. We miss you Studs!

[Warpy]

9. What a fucking waste of time

No wonder they can't find their own asses with both hands and a map, they're too busy chasing working class journalists who don't toe the corporate line.

[mopinko]

10. i'm sure studs would be proud.

i'm sure he would have been disappointed had he not left a fat file behind.
but i do agree with others who say what a waste of money.