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Dixie's Dirty Secret: True Story of How the Government, the Media and the Mob Conspired to Combat Integration and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement
After the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 mandated the desegregation of schools nationwide, the legislature in the state of Mississippi created the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, the basic mission of which was to prevent integration in that state. This book is an investigative history of the Commission, other government agencies (including the FBI), and organized crime, all of which conspired to break the law in dealing with civil-rights and antiwar activists during the 1950s and 1960s. The author uncovers new information about the efforts of FBI agents to combat integration and exposes the longest-running conspiracy in American history.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 12, 2022
This book has a misleading sub-title, with which James Dickerson probably hoped to attract readers. I have learned to be wary of titles that promise "the true story" of something, so I was not surprised to see no impressive revelations in this work.
The author does not tell how the government, the mob, and the media conspired to hinder integration and the protest movement in general. He focuses on the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission in particular. Established in 1956 by governor James Coleman, it was a secret organization whose objective was to maintain racial segregation in Mississippi. It worked like a local FBI, recruiting a huge network of informants and spying on over 87,000 people who it thought were challenging the racial segregation in the South. The Commission achieved notoriety for its involvement in the deaths of three civil rights workers in 1964.
Although the author does a good job chronicling the crimes of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, his narrative does not amount to much more than an engaging story written in the style of a newspaper article. Anyone who is familiar with the civil rights movement and its struggles in the fifties and sixties will not learn much new from his work. I do not need to read it to know that Martin Luther King was monitored by the FBI or that President John F. Kennedy angered many people by supporting civil rights activists. I also did not need to read it to understand that the government sent provocateurs to civil rights demonstrations and protests against Vietnam. There is nothing exceptional about this. The movement was becoming increasingly more popular, which concerned those who wanted to continue the Vietnam conflict.
Notably, I was surprised to read that in 1967, the American army had begun a secret operation to collect information about the political activity of Americans. More than 1,500 agents were assigned to get information about people who attended protest rallies, business executives who gave money to political causes, and politicians who voted for unpopular legislation. Some of them pretended to be reporters. Others infiltrated civil rights and protest organizations. They attended meetings, took photos of the individuals present at them, and took down their names. By the end of the sixties, they had files on more than 100,000 people. Furthermore, they operated independently of the White House and were not under the supervision of any civilian authorities. I had not been aware of this.
What actually makes Dickerson's claims weak, though, is the lack of solid bibliography. To be credible, analyses that border on what is usually labeled as conspiracy theories should have impressive sources, preferably firsthand. However, all of the author's sources are books and articles, and the books are mostly biographies of the individuals whom he mentions in the story. Summarizing biographical information from other books is not serious research. The author might be correct in his thoughts, but he does not present any facts that would have made me believe him. His approach reminded me of that of another author, who accused President Richard Nixon of ordering the Kent State Massacre only based on her understanding of his personality.
DIXIE'S DIRTY SECRET is not among the worst works of its kind, but Dickerson should have focused more on giving proof and less on writing an account that reads like a novel. This book could have been much more informative and convincing if it was based on well-done research.
The author does not tell how the government, the mob, and the media conspired to hinder integration and the protest movement in general. He focuses on the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission in particular. Established in 1956 by governor James Coleman, it was a secret organization whose objective was to maintain racial segregation in Mississippi. It worked like a local FBI, recruiting a huge network of informants and spying on over 87,000 people who it thought were challenging the racial segregation in the South. The Commission achieved notoriety for its involvement in the deaths of three civil rights workers in 1964.
Although the author does a good job chronicling the crimes of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, his narrative does not amount to much more than an engaging story written in the style of a newspaper article. Anyone who is familiar with the civil rights movement and its struggles in the fifties and sixties will not learn much new from his work. I do not need to read it to know that Martin Luther King was monitored by the FBI or that President John F. Kennedy angered many people by supporting civil rights activists. I also did not need to read it to understand that the government sent provocateurs to civil rights demonstrations and protests against Vietnam. There is nothing exceptional about this. The movement was becoming increasingly more popular, which concerned those who wanted to continue the Vietnam conflict.
Notably, I was surprised to read that in 1967, the American army had begun a secret operation to collect information about the political activity of Americans. More than 1,500 agents were assigned to get information about people who attended protest rallies, business executives who gave money to political causes, and politicians who voted for unpopular legislation. Some of them pretended to be reporters. Others infiltrated civil rights and protest organizations. They attended meetings, took photos of the individuals present at them, and took down their names. By the end of the sixties, they had files on more than 100,000 people. Furthermore, they operated independently of the White House and were not under the supervision of any civilian authorities. I had not been aware of this.
What actually makes Dickerson's claims weak, though, is the lack of solid bibliography. To be credible, analyses that border on what is usually labeled as conspiracy theories should have impressive sources, preferably firsthand. However, all of the author's sources are books and articles, and the books are mostly biographies of the individuals whom he mentions in the story. Summarizing biographical information from other books is not serious research. The author might be correct in his thoughts, but he does not present any facts that would have made me believe him. His approach reminded me of that of another author, who accused President Richard Nixon of ordering the Kent State Massacre only based on her understanding of his personality.
DIXIE'S DIRTY SECRET is not among the worst works of its kind, but Dickerson should have focused more on giving proof and less on writing an account that reads like a novel. This book could have been much more informative and convincing if it was based on well-done research.
July 8, 2008
This book blew my mind and was one of the first things I read that really opened my eyes to how stupid I was. The research is amazing and formed in such a way that reads more as a spy thriller than an expose of corrupt and wicked factions of our government. I recommend this to anyone that can read who cares about points of view not belonging to Bill O'Reilly.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews