Lessons From My Grandfather's FBI File

Abstract: In spring 2024, I received, via a Freedom of Information Act request, my grandfather's FBI file. From the 1920s through the 1950s, he served as president of a historically Black college, Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. He had worked in the face of twin threats: Jim Crow and the Red Scare. Surveillance and scrutiny threatened his career and the well-being of his campus, and I returned to his times searching for lessons for our own. I learned that we have been here before; today's threats to our work and to democracy echo those leveled nearly a century ago. As we push back against forces that aim to shut us down, as citizens, workers, and leaders we must hold fast to what we know and what we believe in. Finally, we will face threats to our intimate lives, even our families. Throughout it all, we may be humbled, but we must also learn to resist.