Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: A Spy in Canaan
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1959?
WEBSITE:
CITY: Memphis
STATE: TN
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1959.
EDUCATION:University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, bachelor’s degree, 1982.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, journalist, 1996—.
AWARDS:National awards for investigative reporting and feature writing.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Marc Perrusquia is a journalist based in Memphis, Tennessee. He holds a degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In 1996, he joined the Memphis Commercial Appeal as a reporter. He has won awards for the feature writing and investigative reporting he has completed for that publication. Perrusquia collaborated with Guy Reel and Bartholomew Sullivan on the 1995 book, The Blood of Innocents, a volume about the West Memphis Three.
In 2017, Perrusquia released A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Civil Rights Photographer to Infiltrate the Movement. In this volume, he tells the story of Ernest Withers and his involvement with the FBI. Withers, who was African American, became well-known for his striking images of civil rights figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr. He was friendly with many of his subjects. However, meanwhile, Withers was informing the FBI about their actions, ideas, and plans. He also passed along photographs to the agency. Perrusquia discusses the complex relationship Withers had to the civil rights movement, being both a supporter and an informant. However, Withers was staunchly against communism and reported on communist leanings among civil rights figures. Perrusquia also discusses the difficulty he had gaining information from the FBI on Withers, explaining that he had to go through lawyers to demand documents.
In an interview with Emily Adams Keplinger, contributor to the Tennessean website, Perrusquia stated: “One of the main things I want people to understand is that I’m not trying to erode Ernest Wither’s place in history as a legitimate Civil Rights figure. I’m just trying to cast a light on this hidden history that wasn’t known before. The stuff that Withers did for the FBI does not eclipse what he did for the movement, but it does rival it. His story is instructive to readers who want to learn from history.” Perrusquia told Noah Vernau, writer on the Portage Daily Register website: “This book sheds a light on a very dark, injurious period in our country, when our government was doing a lot of surveillance of our citizens, surveillance based largely upon political beliefs and dissent from public policy.” Regarding the message of the book, Perrusquia told Vernau: “We need to be careful. We need to always question authority—you need transparency, and a way to look over the government’s shoulder, and second-guess what the government was doing.”
Critics offered mostly favorable assessments of A Spy in Canaan. Aram Goudsouzian, reviewer in the Washington Post, commented: “Perrusquia’s new book, A Spy in Canaan, fleshes out critical details in the Withers saga. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, the product of the author’s dogged research and a bold lawsuit backed by the Commercial Appeal. It also stirs an appetite for a richer history of the civil rights movement, though it cannot satisfy that hunger.” Goudsouzian added: “A Spy in Canaan brims with new details about the inner workings of the movement in Memphis and beyond. It rarely steps back to assess the complicated nature of black activism in this era, however.” A Kirkus Reviews writer described the book as “a fast-paced story of a man at the center of turbulence and paranoia.” “Perhaps most important, Perrusquia gives readers insight into the complexities of Withers as a man,” noted Connie Fletcher in Booklist. Seth Rosenfeld, critic on the My San Antonio website, suggested: “Perrusquia has now written a vivid book that more fully examines Withers’ clandestine double duty. A Spy in Canaan is a reporter’s account filled with dramatic scenes, sharply etched characters and insights into FBI political surveillance, the civil rights movement and the journalistic process. And it is timely, given current protest movements on both the left and the right.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Connie Fletcher, review of A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, p. 6.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2018, review of A Spy in Canaan.
Washington Post, March 30, 2018, Aram Goudsouzian, review of A Spy in Canaan.
ONLINE
CrimeReads, https://crimereads.com/ (August 3, 2018), author profile.
My San Antonio, https://www.mysanantonio.com/ (May 3, 2018), Seth Rosenfeld, review of A Spy in Canaan.
National Public Radio Online, https://www.npr.org/ (September 14, 2010), David Gura, author interview.
Portage Daily Register Online, https://www.wiscnews.com/ (February 4, 2018), Noah Vernau, author interview.
Tennessean Online, https://www.tennessean.com/ (April 1, 2018), Emily Adams Keplinger, author interview.
MARC PERRUSQUIA
Marc Perrusquia Marc Perrusquia is a journalist for The Commercial Appeal, the daily newspaper in Memphis, Tenn., where he has worked the past 29 years. He has won numerous national awards for both feature writing and investigative reporting, a specialty honed over three decades working in a city long considered among the nation’s most corrupt.
QUOTED: "One of the main things I want people to understand is that I’m not trying to erode Ernest Wither’s place in history as a legitimate Civil Rights figure. I’m just trying to cast a light on this hidden history that wasn’t known before. The stuff that Withers did for the FBI does not eclipse what he did for the movement, but it does rival it. His story is instructive to readers who want to learn from history."
Journalist sheds light on civil rights figure Ernest Withers with 'A Spy in Canaan'
Emily Adams Keplinger, Special to Nashville Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK — TENNESSEE Published 1:00 p.m. CT April 1, 2018
636576816705224374-Marc-Perrusquia.PNG
(Photo: Submitted)
CONNECT
TWEET
LINKEDIN
COMMENT
EMAIL
MORE
Author Q&A
In 2010 when the first stories broke about renowned photographer Ernest Withers’ involvement as an FBI informant during the early years of the civil rights movement, Marc Perrusquia picked up the story as a journalist for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. The newspaper sued the FBI to release records and documents, and as things played out in court, Perrusquia continued to write story after story, updating the public as records were released.
Ernest Withers was a well-known photographer with great access, but he had a secret life as a paid informant who operated under a code number to help the FBI keep a very suspicious eye on the civil rights movement. Perrusquia's book “A Spy in Canaan,” which he will sign this week at Parnassus, sums it all up.
Have you ever written a book before?
No. In the 1990s I did help write about “The West Memphis Three” at the request of my editor, Guy Reel. He secured a contract for a true crime book, but this is the first book that I’ve done by myself. However, having been a journalist for 35 years, I definitely write for a living.
"A Spy in Canaan" by Marc Perrusquia
"A Spy in Canaan" by Marc Perrusquia (Photo: Submitted)
What was your incentive to write this book?
This book has actually been a work in progress for a long time. I first learned about this information in 1997 from an FBI agent who told me that Ernest Withers had been an informant. But at the time, I couldn’t do anything with the information because the agent wouldn’t go on record. The incentive for this book was to uncover and share this hidden history.
How does Nashville figure into your story?
There were some activists monitored by Withers and the FBI who had Nashville connections.
More: Press photos on view at the Frist spotlight civil rights struggle in Nashville
Who is your target audience?
The book is likely to appeal to a variety of readers — it is part biography, part detective story and part history. It tells Civil Rights history from a deeply personal perspective. Telling the story of Ernest Withers is a way to put a face on this period of history.
What type of research did you do for this book?
I’ve been an investigative reporter for the last 15-20 years, working on stories and special projects that required in-depth research. So I’ve honed my skills of doing records research, making Freedom of Information Act requests, and conducting archival research. This book required a lot of “shoe leather reporting,” too. I probably interviewed over 200 people. Plus, with page after page of documents to review, this story required a lot of analysis to try to find the nuggets that really tell the story.
What was the catalyst for you to share this story with others?
It is fascinating story, compelling on so many levels, even without the FBI component. Ernest Withers is a fascinating guy. He took these monumental photos during the civil rights movement — powerful images that helped propel the movement forward. His photos basically encapsulated what was happening in our country at the time. And he had an almost unprecedented access to people and information. For example, he was able to get inside the morgue where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s body had been taken and shoot photos.
What surprised you the most from what you learned from your research?
Ernest Withers was a complicated guy, and he did a lot of great things. But he was also a flawed human being. I was surprised at the level of corruption that he was involved in — not just his work with the FBI, but he was also involved in bootlegging whiskey and was sent to prison for being caught up in the “cash for clemency” scandal involving then governor Ray Blanton.
What is the “take away” you hope people will have after reading your book?
One of the main things I want people to understand is that I’m not trying to erode Ernest Wither’s place in history as a legitimate Civil Rights figure. I’m just trying to cast a light on this hidden history that wasn’t known before. The stuff that Withers did for the FBI does not eclipse what he did for the movement, but it does rival it. His story is instructive to readers who want to learn from history. These government operations were very corrosive to our democracy. This story provides a good lesson for this country going forward — freedom of speech, the right to protest — these are cherished American values that we don’t want eroded because views are either unpopular or considered dangerous.
If you go
What: Book signing event with Marc Perrusquia for “A Spy in Canaan”
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Parnassus, 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14
Contact: 615-953-2243
Marc Perrusquia
3rd degree connection3rd
Projects reporter at The Commercial Appeal
Greater Memphis Area
Message Send a message to Marc Perrusquia More actions
The Commercial Appeal
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
See contact info
See contact info
See connections (227)
227 connections
Experience
The Commercial Appeal
reporter
Company NameThe Commercial Appeal
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Projects Reporter
Company NameMemphis Commercial Appeal
Dates Employed1996 – Present Employment Duration22 yrs
Education
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Degree NameBachelor's degree Field Of StudyJournalism
Dates attended or expected graduation 1979 – 1982
Skills & Endorsements
Blogging
See 4 endorsements for Blogging4
Endorsed by 3 of Marc’s colleagues at The Commercial Appeal
Investigative Reporting
See 3 endorsements for Investigative Reporting3
Endorsed by Beth Warren, who is highly skilled at this
Endorsed by 3 of Marc’s colleagues at The Commercial Appeal
Breaking News
See 2 endorsements for Breaking News2
Endorsed by 2 of Marc’s colleagues at The Commercial Appeal
Show more
Interests
The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal
1,516 followers
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
311,110 followers
QUOTED: "This book sheds a light on a very dark, injurious period in our country, when our government was doing a lot of surveillance of our citizens, surveillance based largely upon political beliefs and dissent from public policy."
"we need to be careful. We need to always question authority—you need transparency, and a way to look over the government’s shoulder, and second-guess what the government was doing."
Cambria native's book offers look at government surveillance
NOAH VERNAU nvernau@wiscnews.com Feb 4, 2018
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print
Save
Ernest Withers stood on the front lines of the civil rights movement and took pictures.
An early chronicler of Martin Luther King Jr., Negro League baseball, and the burgeoning blues scene in Memphis, his photos were among the most famous of his time.
He also was a spy for the U.S. government.
“Withers captured and documented black life in the south for 60 years. In Memphis, he knew everybody,” said Cambria native, journalist and author Marc Perrusquia.
“He was a friendly, affable guy – a newsman.”
Perrusquia’s new book – “A Spy in Canaan” – tells the story of Withers’ work as an FBI informant, a secret life Perrusquia uncovered in 2010 using Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation.
Perrusquia, a 1977 graduate of Cambria High School, has been a journalist for 35 years. Since 1989, he has reported for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, where Perrusquia eventually broke the story about Withers. The story attracted international media attention, including coverage from the New York Times and major TV news networks.
“This book sheds a light on a very dark, injurious period in our country, when our government was doing a lot of surveillance of our citizens, surveillance based largely upon political beliefs and dissent from public policy,” Perrusquia said. Sloppy coding the FBI had used to identify its informants in documentation got the ball rolling in Perrusquia’s research, and his newspaper sued the FBI to release more records.
“As fate would have it,” Perrusquia said of the litigation process, “everything lined up: We had a sympathetic judge, a good lawyer, and in the mediated settlement, it was eventually admitted he was an informant.”
“A Spy in Canaan” is part biography, part exposé. Withers – who was born in 1922 and died in 2007 – is not made out to be a villain in Perrusquia’s book, the author said. Withers, himself an African American, led a complicated life: he was a World War II veteran, he had eight children to feed, and in the 1960s, he often was much older than the leaders he photographed, leaders who’d considered Withers to be a good friend and had allowed him to sit in on strategy meetings.
Perhaps his most famous photograph is one from the trial in the death of Emmett Till, the photo showing Till’s great uncle, on the witness stand, pointing his finger at Till’s killers. “Ernest defied the judge’s orders to snap photos during the session,” Perrusquia said of the iconic photograph. “It’s fascinating.”
“He was motivated, in part, by money,” Perrusquia said of the Memphis photographer’s government intelligence work, which helped the FBI identify and track figures in the civil rights movement. The informant’s work, Perrusquia said, provided a window through which the government could keep tabs on the freedom struggle in black America.
Withers had gained the trust of King’s inner circle, taking numerous photos of the icon throughout King’s career until his April 1968 assassination in Memphis. Though FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover “tried to destroy Dr. King” over a period of several years – the FBI at one point suggested to King that he kill himself – Perrusquia said he does not believe the government is responsible for King’s death.
“Because of that history, many people believe the government killed King,” said Perrusquia, who said he believes the evidence against James Earl Ray is ironclad.
Still, Perrusquia said his book could serve as a reminder for readers to always dig deeper, whenever possible. “You obviously have to question what your government is doing, because your government, although, often times well-intentioned, isn’t always operating in your best interests.
“I think this whole period of the surveillance state that the FBI and other wings of the government were running in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s was highly corrosive to democracy. So many people who were put under investigation had files built on them, and often times, (the government) moved against these people in ways like trying to get them fired from jobs or to disrupt them in some fashion.”
These people were targeted “simply for the reason of taking certain positions that were unpopular, like the war in Vietnam or segregation,” Perrusquia said. “So we need to be careful. We need to always question authority – you need transparency, and a way to look over the government’s shoulder, and second-guess what the government was doing.
“We had to battle the government tooth and nail to bring this out.”
For more information about Perrusquia’s book, read the publisher’s summary at mhpbooks.com/books/a-spy-in-canaan. The book is also available for purchase on Amazon.
Photographer Ernest Withers Chronicled Civil Rights Movement, Worked For FBI
Email
September 14, 20103:34 PM ET
DAVID GURA
Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, a journalist for The Commercial Appeal learned that Ernest C. Withers, a Memphis-based photojournalist who chronicled the Civil Rights Movement, was also an FBI informant.
"As a foot soldier in J. Edgar Hoover's domestic intelligence program, Withers helped the FBI gain a front-row seat to the civil rights and anti-war movements in Memphis," Marc Perrusquia writes.
In Withers, who ran a popular Beale Street photography studio frequented by the powerful and ordinary alike, the FBI found a super-informant, one who, according to an FBI report, proved "most conversant with all key activities in the Negro community.''
For years, he shared photographs and information with federal agents. Withers enjoyed close access to civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. During many momentous events, he was there.
In an interview with NPR, projects reporter Marc Perrusquia said he filed his FOIA request in 2007, after Withers died.
"The information that I got from the government related to a public corruption probe that Mr. Withers was caught up in years after he was an informant that inadvertently revealed that he was an informant," Perrusquia said.
In those 369 pages, there were references to a confidential informant number, ME 338-R, which the FBI didn't redact. Using that code, Perrusquia pored over other documents in the public domain, uncovering a link between Withers and the FBI.
"It was surprising, to a level," he said, "but it makes perfect sense, because [Withers] was a guy who needed no excuse any place he went."
He was a great find for the FBI. It was surprising, to a point, but it makes perfect sense now.
In his article, Perrusquia notes that, "the one record that would pinpoint the breadth and detail of his undercover work -- his informant file -- remains sealed."
The Justice Department has twice rejected the newspaper's Freedom of Information requests to copy that file, and won't even acknowledge the file exists.
QUOTED: "Perrusquia's new book, A Spy in Canaan, fleshes out critical details in the Withers saga. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, the product of the author's dogged research and a bold lawsuit backed by the Commercial Appeal. It also stirs an appetite for a richer history of the civil rights movement, though it cannot satisfy that hunger."
"A Spy in Canaan brims with new details about the inner workings of the movement in Memphis and beyond. It rarely steps back to assess the complicated nature of black activism in this era, however."
Book World: Civil rights chronicler and FBI spy
Aram Goudsouzian
The Washington Post. (Mar. 30, 2018): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Aram Goudsouzian
A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement
By Marc Perrusquia
Melville House. 349 pp. $28.99
---
You know the photograph. It is from 1968, one week before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. A sea of signs, proclaiming "I AM A MAN." A sharp line of black sanitation workers, ready to march through Memphis. A purse-wielding woman in the left foreground, and a slim man walking across the line, gazing right at the camera.
The man behind the camera was Ernest Withers. Besides that iconic photograph, he supplied scores of images that shape our memory of the civil rights movement. He captured the dramatic moment in a Mississippi courtroom when Moses Wright identified the abductor of his great-nephew Emmett Till. He snapped the perfect shot of King staring balefully out a window while integrating a bus in Montgomery. He photographed the Freedom Rides, the funeral of Medgar Evers and James Meredith's March Against Fear.
Withers was also a paid informant for the FBI. That news broke in September 2010, after the Memphis Commercial Appeal published a report by Marc Perrusquia. The reporter had exploited a clerical error to learn that Withers had supplied information to FBI agents from at least 1968 to 1970.
That bombshell raised as many questions as it answered. What was Withers' exact role? When did it begin and end? What was its impact? Most important, why? Why did this great black photographer spy on a movement for black freedom?
Perrusquia's new book, "A Spy in Canaan," fleshes out critical details in the Withers saga. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, the product of the author's dogged research and a bold lawsuit backed by the Commercial Appeal. It also stirs an appetite for a richer history of the civil rights movement, though it cannot satisfy that hunger.
Withers grew up in the segregated North Memphis neighborhood and served in the Pacific theater during World War II. In 1948, after joining the first crop of black police officers in Memphis, he lost his job in a bootlegging scandal. Withers turned back to photography, a passion since childhood, and thrived as a chronicler of black life in Memphis: portraits, community events, the stars of baseball's Negro Leagues, the bluesmen of Beale Street.
A gregarious man with an entrepreneurial knack, Withers also freelanced for black publications, photographing the dawn of the black revolution. Thanks to his camera and easy smile - as well as his black skin - he entered the inner circles of civil rights leaders. It made him the perfect informant.
The FBI cultivated him as early as 1958. By the 1960s Withers was relaying to the agency photographs and gossip about the Nation of Islam in Memphis, voting rights battles in rural Fayette and Haywood counties, anti-war hippies, and nonviolent ministers such as the Rev. James Lawson. He monitored the swirl of activists and politicians coming through Memphis, a crossroads city in the black freedom struggle. In 1967 he earned the designation of confidential informant on racial matters.
His main contact, William H. Lawrence, personified the politics of the FBI. The agent suspected communist influence in any left-leaning activism. He took a "vacuum cleaner approach" to citizen surveillance and fed compromising information to local authorities, while evincing a moral distaste for black leaders such as King. Withers took his family portrait.
Perrusquia frames the book as "a narrative of discovery," often reverting to first-person voice to describe his bumpy journey toward the truth. His first tip came in 1997, during an interview with a retired FBI agent. Eleven years later, after Withers died, a Freedom of Information Act request produced FBI files on a late-1970s prisoner pardon scandal that felled Tennessee governor Ray Blanton. Withers, then working for the state liquor board, had played a bit role. One page of the file failed to redact his code name as an informant. Perrusquia had proof.
After publishing his breakthrough story in 2010, the Commercial Appeal sued the FBI, despite the newspaper's struggling finances. The FBI ultimately released 70 of about 150 investigative files involving the photographer. As Perrusquia writes, these files "establish Withers as a valued, long-term asset for the FBI inside the civil rights movement."
The tragedy of 1968 hangs over the book. During the sanitation workers' strike, the FBI was helping to shape the public discourse in Memphis. It painted the Invaders, a local Black Power organization, as a hostile threat. It portrayed King as a rabble-rouser who consorted with militants in expensive hotels. Withers supplied the authorities with key details while also taking the most resonant photos of the protesters. After the April 4 assassination, he even photographed King in the morgue.
Withers kept supplying intelligence to the FBI until 1975, by which time he had been paid more than $20,000. "A Spy in Canaan" brims with new details about the inner workings of the movement in Memphis and beyond. It rarely steps back to assess the complicated nature of black activism in this era, however.
Perrusquia instead details the nature and impact of federal surveillance of American citizens exercising their right to lawful protest. "In the name of national security," he writes, "the FBI retarded the movement." Its hysteria over radicalism tainted a democratic movement.
Without a doubt, Withers betrayed the activists who trusted and befriended him. Why? The money surely helped provide for his eight children. Withers also seemed uneasy with the street-theater confrontations of the civil rights movement. Maybe, too, he wanted to be a lawman again. But we do not know. The FBI never released Withers' official informant file. Without that file, Perrusquia cannot explain the motivations of his subject.
That void has implications beyond the life of Withers. Whatever our political leanings, we tend to see the civil rights movement as a clash of heroes and villains. Withers' photography made him an ideal FBI informant, but his FBI work also enhanced his civil rights photography. Those images left an indelible imprint on our collective understanding of an epic struggle for human justice.
Perhaps, then, our sinners are also our saints.
---
Goudsouzian is the author of "Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear" and the co-editor, with Charles McKinney, of "An Unseen Light: Struggles for Black Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee."
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Goudsouzian, Aram. "Book World: Civil rights chronicler and FBI spy." Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532798259/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=43e96f1e. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532798259
QUOTED: "a fast-paced story of a man at the center of turbulence and paranoia."
7/15/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1531681545913 1/2
Print Marked Items
Perrusquia, Marc: A SPY IN CANAAN
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Perrusquia, Marc A SPY IN CANAAN Melville House (Adult Nonfiction) $28.99 3, 27 ISBN: 978-1-
61219-341-0
The story of an African-American photographer who spent 18 years feeding information to the FBI.
Over a 60-year career, Ernest Withers (1922-2007) produced more than 1 million photographs chronicling
black life in the South. A "pivotal" contributor to the black press, he seemed an unlikely man to serve as an
FBI informant. His powerful images of Martin Luther King Jr., of Emmett Till's uncle at the trial of his
nephew's killers, and of civil rights and anti-war protests appeared to support the activities and individuals
he documented. But as Perrusquia (co-author: The Blood of Innocents: The True Story of Multiple Murders
in West Memphis, Arkansas, 2000) argues persuasively, from 1958 to 1976, Withers led a "double life." A
trusted member of the Memphis black community, he was trusted as well by FBI agent William Lawrence,
who filled dossiers with photographs and intelligence Withers passed on. As he began his research, the
author, an investigative reporter for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, faced opposition from the FBI as
well as Withers' family, who sued to quash the "distorted portrait" that they feared would emerge. Filing
requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the author was met with repeated denials; after agreeing to
mediation, the newspaper eventually received hundreds of pages, which Perrusquia has mined fruitfully,
along with archival material and scores of interview transcripts. "An Army veteran with conservative views
that aligned with most of Middle America when it came to Vietnam and the cold war," Withers seemed as
eager as Lawrence to rout communists from the civil rights and peace movements. Close to King and his
circle, he reported to the FBI when King met with Black Power militants. When he covered anti-war
demonstrations, protestors welcomed him as a sympathizer, but the FBI used his photographs to identify
individuals they had under surveillance. Perrusquia is uncertain about Withers' motivation--"money,
patriotism" or "his long ambition to be a cop"--and he sees him, as do many others, as a hero who
publicized the realities of activist movements.
A fast-paced story of a man at the center of turbulence and paranoia.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Perrusquia, Marc: A SPY IN CANAAN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461661/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7d7f4b04.
Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461661
QUOTED: "Perhaps most important, Perrusquia gives readers insight into the complexities of Withers as a man."
7/15/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1531681545913 2/2
A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a
Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the
Civil Rights Movement
Connie Fletcher
Booklist.
114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p6+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement. By
Marc Perrusquia. Mar. 2018.368p. illus. Melville, $28.99 (97816121934101.363.25.
Some of the most iconic photos of the civil rights era, including some of the most intimate photos of Martin
Luther King Jr. were taken by Ernest Withers, an African American photographer based in Memphis.
Withers led a double life that only now has been revealed. He was on the inside of the civil rights movement
in the 1960s, a trusted confidant of its leaders. At the same time, Withers worked as a paid "racial
informant" for the FBI, helping the bureau surveil the movement by sharing his photos and verbal
intelligence. Perrusquia, a longtime reporter for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, adroitly weaves
together three stories: how Withers worked for and against the movement, how the FBI used operatives like
Withers to create a surveillance state in the '60s, and, just as fascinating, how Perrusquia's years of research,
along with suing the FBI for the release of classified documents, led to his shocking discovery. Perhaps
most important, Perrusquia gives readers insight into the complexities of Withers as a man, and an
appreciation of the lasting impact of his photos. --Connie Fletcher
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Fletcher, Connie. "A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil
Rights Movement." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 6+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250754/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=447a732a.
Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250754
QUOTED: "Perrusquia has now written a vivid book that more fully examines Withers’ clandestine double duty. A Spy in Canaan is a reporter’s account filled with dramatic scenes, sharply etched characters and insights into FBI political surveillance, the civil rights movement and the journalistic process. And it is timely, given current protest movements on both the left and the right."
The camera turns against the photographer
By Seth Rosenfeld, San Francisco Chronicle Published 12:00 am CDT, Thursday, May 3, 2018
Marc Perrusquia Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht / © Karen Pulfer Focht-ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-NOT FOR USE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht
IMAGE 1 OF 3 Marc Perrusquia
The black-and-white photo speaks volumes: With camera dangling from his neck, Ernest Withers strides along a Mississippi back road flanked by Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael and the Rev. James Lawson. Withers had the trust of the era’s civil rights leaders, allowing him extraordinary access that made him perhaps the most prolific and influential photographer of the movement.
But the image is silent about his darker side. For many years, Withers was a paid FBI informant who secretly supplied J. Edgar Hoover’s bureau with hundreds of intelligence reports and photos of the very activists he’d befriended, from student volunteers to striking Memphis sanitation workers to leaders like King.
We know this thanks to reporter Marc Perrusquia of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, whose dogged investigation and fierce fight under the Freedom of Information Act revealed in 2010 that Withers had been an informant, a shocking disclosure that sparked angry denials from his supporters. Perrusquia has now written a vivid book that more fully examines Withers’ clandestine double duty.
“A Spy in Canaan” is a reporter’s account filled with dramatic scenes, sharply etched characters and insights into FBI political surveillance, the civil rights movement and the journalistic process. And it is timely, given current protest movements on both the left and the right.
Entertainment Channel
Now Playing
Selena Gomez’s IG Driving Justin Bieber CRAZY!...
Hollyscoop
Exclusive: 'Bumblebee' Unveils Two New Decepticon Trackers...
Entertainment Weekly
Henry Cavill Felt Like He Was At School For 'Mission:...
CelebWire
Vanessa Kirby Closed Down Paris For Twenty Minutes...
CelebWire
Tinashe Drops DISS TRACK Against Kendall Jenner & Ben Simmons!...
Hollyscoop
Cardi B Nicki Minaj FEUD Back ON!...
Hollyscoop
Tyga PISSED At Kylie Jenner Over THIS!...
Hollyscoop
My First Gig: Years & Years...
Associated Press
Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg remember family vacations...
Associated Press
Tom Cruise Gets Ready To Jump Out Of Plane...
CelebWire
Withers was there from the early days of the movement, capturing iconic images as he traversed the South on assignment for Jet magazine and the local black newspaper, the Tri-State Defender, sometimes braving hostile white mobs.
It was Withers who photographed Emmett Till’s shriveled great-uncle on the witness stand in 1955 as he leveled an accusatory finger at the men who had murdered the teenager for reportedly whistling at a white woman; King riding at the front of one of the first integrated buses in Montgomery after the boycott in 1956; King’s body in the Memphis morgue hours after his assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.
Perrusquia writes that though much of the data Withers hoovered up was pedestrian, it was intrusive — photos he took at weddings, unpublished phone numbers, sexual rumors, comments shared in confidence, thoughts and plans.
More Information
A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement
By Marc Perrusquia
Melville House, $28.99
Some of it may have helped the FBI better assess fast-moving events, and in one instance Withers reported that he had heard a subject say nothing disloyal. But the FBI engaged in vast overreach and used the information to build dossiers on people who posed no real threat, the author writes. And while Withers may not have known, he adds, the FBI apparently used his information to harm people.
The author also puts Withers’ story in historical context, noting that it was the height of the Cold War, and the American Communist Party was widely seen as a threat. King’s confrontational, if nonviolent, tactics, moreover, were disturbing to many people, regardless of race.
At one end of Beale Street now stands the Withers Collection Museum & Gallery that showcases his photography. Yet his role as an informant remains out of the spotlight. As “A Spy in Canaan” adeptly shows, history is not always so clear-cut. The book also makes a convincing case that the FOIA should be strengthened to help the public access records necessary to better understand this complex and pivotal period.
Seth Rosenfeld is author of “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power.”