Where Have All The Black Revolutionaries Gone in Steel City?: An Interview with Sala Udin

• In Event: Critical Methods Towards Addressing Harm in the System.

Abstract

On August 25, 1967, Pittsburgh became one of only twenty-two locations across the nation to initiate FBI Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) operations, in order to destroy the lives of the city’s Black revolutionaries. After I reviewed over 4000 pages of FBI Memorandums obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), it became clear that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI targeted one of Pittsburgh’s greatest Black Power Movement activists, Sala Udin. Based on these FOIA memos, the FBI conspired to either weaken his authority as a leader, incarcerate him, or neutralize him. Nearly 55 years later, this essay will focus on two recorded conversations I had with Udin, where we speak on a variety of issues, including his thoughts and self-reflection on 19 pages of FBI COINTELPRO memos specifically detailing state actions for his neutralization.

Author

• Tony Gaskew, University of Pittsburgh