Excerpts from Freedom of Information FBI, 2000

It’s hard to know what to make of these documents without further research. For now, I’m sharing some material scanned from a Freedom of Information Act request to FBI made in 2000. In any case, it provides a window the early history of VISTA, the organizing strategies used, and the reactions met.

A letter from Kalamazoo Community Action Program to VISTA, J Edgar Hoover, and President Nixon saying VISTA Training is focused on agitation and disruption.

I find these “artifacts” an interesting glimpse into another time, but it would be difficult to untangle. For example, Community Action Programs (CAP) were also a product of the War on Poverty era to address poverty. This seems to be CAP representative complaining about another anti-poverty effort.