Representatives Cohen, Carson, Lee, Davis, Payne, Moore and Johnson Reintroduce Bill to Remove J. Edgar Hoover’s Name from FBI Headquarters Building
Would erase “an autocrat who used secret surveillance and other illegal means…in the service of his conservative world view”
WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen, André Carson, Barbara Lee, Danny K. Davis, Donald M. Payne Jr., Gwen Moore, and Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr. today reintroduced a measure to remove the name of longtime Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover from the FBI headquarters building in downtown Washington, D.C.
The measure is co-sponsored by an additional 13 members of Congress.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
“I am pleased to see the overwhelming support for this long overdue righting of an embarrassing wrong. J. Edgar Hoover doesn’t deserve the honor of having the nation’s premier law enforcement agency headquarters named for him. The civil rights we enjoy today often were achieved in spite of J. Edgar Hoover, not because of him. Yet his name adorns one of the most prominent buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue in our nation’s capital and one that houses an agency of government responsible for assuring justice. Given his well-documented abuses and prejudices, including his efforts to silence Dr. King and his support for un-Constitutional counterintelligence programs such as COINTELPRO, I believe it is time to remove his name from this place of honor.”
Congresswoman Barbara Lee made the following statement:
“J. Edgar Hoover deliberately wielded his power to undermine anti-war leaders, his political rivals, and civil rights activists such as the Black Panther Party through his illegal COINTELPRO operations, which I witnessed firsthand in my early days as an activist in Oakland. It is past time that we remove his name from the FBI building. I am proud to partner with Representative Cohen on this effort to end the commemoration of a man who not only abused his position of power, but actively undermined the fight for justice and equality for Black Americans.”
The measure was co-sponsored by Ayanna Pressley, Bennie G. Thompson, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Donald S. Beyer, Jr., Eleanor Holmes Norton, Frederica S. Wilson, Jan Schakowsky, Jesús G. “Chuy” García, Jill Tokuda, Marc Veasey, Mark Pocan, Nikema Williams, and Rashida Tlaib.
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