[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 155 (Thursday, October 22, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO REMOVE J. EDGAR HOOVER'S NAME FROM THE FBI 
                       BUILDING IN WASHINGTON, DC

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 22, 2015

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bill I 
introduced today to remove J. Edgar Hoover's name from the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation building in Washington, DC.
  J. Edgar Hoover did terrible things when he served as FBI Director.
  His infamous ``COINTELPRO'' program harassed civil rights workers, 
political activists and homosexuals.
  He was downright abusive.
  His efforts to silence Martin Luther King, Jr. and out homosexuals 
working for the federal government were deplorable.
  It has been reported that, at one point, he even had a letter sent to 
Dr. King threatening to expose information about his private life. The 
letter appeared to suggest that Dr. King should kill himself to save 
himself from the embarrassment.
  The letter said, ``King, there is only one thing left for you to do. 
You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact 
number has been selected or a specific reason, it has practical 
significant [sic]. You are done. There is but one way out for you. You 
better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to 
the nation.''
  His treatment of homosexuals was no better. He called them ``sex 
deviates.''
  He ordered the FBI to undertake extraordinary efforts to identify 
everyone who was even suspected of being homosexual in the federal 
government.
  There is a very good documentary about this by Michael Isikoff on 
Yahoo News entitled ``Uniquely Nasty: J. Edgar Hoover's war on gays''. 
I encourage my colleagues to see it.
  In 1951, Hoover issued a memo to top FBI officials saying that ``Each 
supervisor will be held personally responsible to underline in green 
pencil the names of individuals . . . who are alleged to be sex 
deviates.''
  The FBI eventually collected more than 360,000 files on gays and 
lesbians.
  It has been reported that in 1952, Hoover outed a young campaign aide 
who was in line to be hired by President-elect Eisenhower. The young 
man, Arthur Vandenburgh, Jr., was the son of Republican U.S. Senator 
Arthur Vandenburgh. But that didn't matter.
  The young Vandenburgh was promptly rejected.
  And Hoover didn't even stop there. Years later, the FBI went on to 
out the young man to Confidential magazine, which then outed him 
publicly--reporting, ``Once upon a time there was a famous senator's 
son who had a limp wrist.''
  J. Edgar Hoover was a terrible man. Even the FBI's own web site 
declares that his infamous COINTELPRO program was, ``rightly criticized 
by Congress and the American people for abridging first amendment 
rights and for other reasons.''
  Yet, his name continues to adorn the FBI building in Washington, DC--
one of the most prominent buildings in our nation's capital.
  This is just wrong.
  I urge my colleagues to pass this bill, and remove his name from the 
FBI building.

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