By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Saying J. Edgar Hoover stomped on the civil rights of Americans, a congressman has introduced a bill to remove the former FBI director’s name from the bureau’s headquarters building, WREG Memphis reports.
Congressman Steve Cohen said Hoover’s poor treatment of African Americans, gay people and others is reason enough to remove the name.
“The civil rights we enjoy today are in spite of J. Edgar Hoover, not because of him. Yet, his name adorns one of the most prominent buildings in our nation’s capital and one that houses one of the agencies of government responsible for justice,” Cohen said. “Given his well-documented abuses and prejudices towards African Americans, gays, and lesbians, I believe it is past time to remove his name from this place of honor.”
He added: “His efforts to silence Dr. King and out homosexuals working for the government were deplorable and a stain on our nation’s history and on the FBI,” he added.
Eight other members of Congress are sponsoring the bill.
