FBI Files

As a kid, Janis Ian would see men in black suits hanging around the mailbox in the middle of August. They were FBI, and that was obvious to the family. It took Ian 13 years to obtain the files that told the full story of the surveillance her family endured because of their involvement in the Civil Rights movement.

Ian’s father, a farmer and local “lay veterinarian” led an integrated animal vaccination team. The FBI picked him up on the way home from a meeting. He refused to let them in the house without a warrant. Ian’s mother had attended the Civil Rights Congress, and that was enough for the whole family to be on a government watch list.

When Ian finally retrieved the files on her family, she discovered that each time her father applied for tenure, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would let the school know they were watching him. He never got tenure.