The Informant

The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo

Nonfiction, History
Cover of the book The Informant by Gary May, Yale University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Gary May ISBN: 9780300129991
Publisher: Yale University Press Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press Language: English
Author: Gary May
ISBN: 9780300129991
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press
Language: English

In The Informant, historian Gary May reveals the untold story of the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, shot to death by members of the violent Birmingham Ku Klux Klan at the end of Martin Luther King’s historic Voting Rights March in 1965. The case drew national attention and was solved almost instantly, because one of the Klansman present during the shooting was Gary Thomas Rowe, an undercover FBI informant. At the time, Rowe’s information and subsequent testimony were heralded as a triumph of law enforcement. But as Gary May reveals in this provocative and powerful book, Rowe’s history of collaboration with both the Klan and the FBI was far more complex.
Based on previously unexamined FBI and Justice Department Records, The Informant demonstrates that in their ongoing efforts to protect Rowe’s cover, the FBI knowingly became an accessory to some of the most grotesque crimes of the Civil Rights era--including a vicious attack on the Freedom Riders and perhaps even the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
A tale of a renegade informant and an intelligence system ill-prepared to deal with threats from within, The Informant offers a dramatic and cautionary tale about what can happen when secret police power goes unchecked.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In The Informant, historian Gary May reveals the untold story of the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, shot to death by members of the violent Birmingham Ku Klux Klan at the end of Martin Luther King’s historic Voting Rights March in 1965. The case drew national attention and was solved almost instantly, because one of the Klansman present during the shooting was Gary Thomas Rowe, an undercover FBI informant. At the time, Rowe’s information and subsequent testimony were heralded as a triumph of law enforcement. But as Gary May reveals in this provocative and powerful book, Rowe’s history of collaboration with both the Klan and the FBI was far more complex.
Based on previously unexamined FBI and Justice Department Records, The Informant demonstrates that in their ongoing efforts to protect Rowe’s cover, the FBI knowingly became an accessory to some of the most grotesque crimes of the Civil Rights era--including a vicious attack on the Freedom Riders and perhaps even the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
A tale of a renegade informant and an intelligence system ill-prepared to deal with threats from within, The Informant offers a dramatic and cautionary tale about what can happen when secret police power goes unchecked.

More books from Yale University Press

Cover of the book Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order by Gary May
Cover of the book Genocide on the Drina River by Gary May
Cover of the book Andy Warhol by Gary May
Cover of the book How Jews Became Germans by Gary May
Cover of the book Aggressivity, Narcissism, and Self-Destructiveness in the Psychotherapeutic Rela by Gary May
Cover of the book Salvaged Pages, Multimedia Edition by Gary May
Cover of the book The Lost World of Byzantium by Gary May
Cover of the book Citizens' Wealth by Gary May
Cover of the book The Making of John Ledyard by Gary May
Cover of the book Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial by Gary May
Cover of the book 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Gary May
Cover of the book The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America by Gary May
Cover of the book Closing the Courthouse Door by Gary May
Cover of the book Emperor by Gary May
Cover of the book Persian Gulf Command by Gary May
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy