|
Documentary filmmaker,
author recounts pervasive and personal fear of the J.
Edgar Hoover era
By Stevie Stewart
March 1, 2007 | After desperately protecting a deep
family secret for nearly a half-century, Millie McGhee-Morris
told several USU students Tuesday that she embraces
her history in order to keep from it from repeating
itself.
McGhee-Morris' recent documentary What's Done
in the Dark, was scheduled to be shown in the TSC
auditorium Tuesday, but because of the snow, Mcghee-Morris
was late and the film was not shown.
Event organizers told McGhee-Morris they could reschedule
for another day, but she said she was on her way.
"I didn't care if there was only one person waiting
for me when I got here, I wanted to speak to anyone
who was willing to wait," McGhee-Morris said.
McGhee-Morris is a multi-racial educator, novelist,
mother and mentor who recently released her second book
despite being illiterate until age 47. Her books and
documentary are about former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover,
a man McGhee-Morris says was related to her family.
During his time with the FBI, Hoover was notorious
for singling out black people and civil rights liberators.
In 1988, in a sworn affidavit, Special FBI Agent Hirsch
Friedman told the Supreme Court that he heard Hoover's
reaction the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
"He said, 'They got him! They got the SOB,'"
Friedman told the court.
While much of Hoover's racist reputation is considered
to be only circumstantial, many of his co-workers have
told of direct examples of Hoover obsessing about finding
black criminals rather than white Mafiosi.
McGhee-Morris said this family secret of her relation
to Hoover was told to her by her father at age 10. She
said the secret forced her to live in fear in her small,
Mississippi town. Her father warned her that Hoover
had the ability to hurt their family if anyone else
learned they were related, said McGhee-Morris.
McGhee-Morris said the fear kept her so on-edge that
she developed very low self-esteem as a child.
"I wanted to be a writer at age 12, even though I
couldn't even read," McGhee-Morris said. "I had a burning
desire to do something with my life."
After being battered by three husbands, she said she
met a teacher whom embraced her as a friend. This woman's
name was Cynthia Stewart and McGhee-Morris said she
would never have amounted to anything without this woman's
example.
"I told her of my love for young, talented children.
I told her I wanted to find a way to help bright but
struggling students, "McGhee-Morris said.
McGhee-Morris said she and Stewart conjured up the
idea of trying to get grant money to help students.
McGhee-Morris said she would tell Stewart what she wanted
to do with the money and Stewart just listened and wrote
the grant proposal.
McGhee-Morris said, "All the while, Cynthia had no
idea I couldn't read myself. The day we finished the
proposal, I told her I didn't know how to read. I was
47."
According to McGhee-Morris, Stewart taught her how
to read, she went on to college, she became a teacher
and the rest is history.
McGhee-Morris said it is because of people like Stewart
and her current husband, Dr. Larry Morris, that she
has learned to love everyone and learned to forgive.
"I don't hate J. Edgar Hoover for the fear he instilled
in me growing up," McGhee-Morris said. "Hate only breeds
more hate."
"Make your own mark and don't let anyone pit hate
on you," she said.
McGhee-Morris said Hoover was raised a white boy in
a consequential period. He was a victim of the system
like so many people are, she said.
"According to my mama," McGhee-Morris said,
"on her deathbed, Hoover's grandmother and my great-grandmother
told him to stop hating blacks because he was black
himself."
McGhee-Morris currently resides in Rancho Cucamonga,
Calif., with her husband. For more information on her
life and her relation to J. Edgar Hoover, visit the
website of the Executive Intelligence Review at:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2000/ews_hoover_2730.html
MS
MS
|
