"An Absolute Contempt for America's Stated Values of Freedom of Speech and Expression"

"Hoover was right about one thing: black bookstores were on the rise by the end of the 1960s. As late as 1966, black-owned bookstores operated in fewer than a dozen American cities, and most of them struggled to stay in business. Within just a few years, however, the number of stores had skyrocketed. Dozens of new stores opened throughout the country in the final years of the '60s, roughly tripling their numbers since the start of the decade. As The New York Times reported in 1969, 'A surge of book-buying is sweeping through Black communities across the country.' What had been about a dozen black bookstores operating in the mid-1960s grew to over 50 by the early 1970s, and around 75 by the middle of the decade.
"In Hoover's eyes, black-owned bookstores represented a coordinated network of hate-spewing extremists."

Joshua Clark Davis at The Atlantic writes about the FBI's "war against black bookstores."