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Democrats want J Edgar Hoover building renamed as Hollywood-inspired bill aims to cancel 'racist' ex FBI chief

Rep Steve Cohen (D-TN) said that he had watched 'Judas and the Black Messiah' and had been inspired to introduce the legislation to remove Hoover's name from the FBI Building

Last month, House Democrats introduced a bill to rename the J Edgar Hoover FBI Building, the headquarters of the federal investigation agency. According to the bill, a commission will be established to review the designation of the building located at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest in Washington DC and provide recommendations on renaming the building.

The bill was introduced by House Representative Gerald Connolly (D-VA) and co-sponsors of the bill include Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN). The bill was introduced in the House on February 24 and is awaiting future action.

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The bill also states that the criteria for the redesignation should reflect "the mission and values of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," "racial, ethnic, and gender diversity," and "the values of the United States Constitution," and that the redesignation must serve "as an inspiration to FBI employees and citizens of the United States," and honor "living persons when appropriate and in exceptional cases."

According to the bill, the commission to redesignate the building will include eight members, including two members appointed by the president, in consultation with the attorney general and the director of the FBI, two members appointed by the majority leader of the Senate, one member appointed by the minority leader of the Senate, two members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one member appointed by the minority leader of the House of Representatives. Each member should have expertise in the history of the federal government or social justice choices.

Connolly had appeared in a video message on MSNBC to speak of the bill, saying, "I introduced [legislation] to form a national commission to rename the J. Edgar Hoover building...we need to do this because frankly, J. Edgar Hoover was a malign character in American history."

"He was a racist who went after Martin Luther King in extraordinary ways. He was a homophobe, a misogynist. He was somebody who even denied the existence of the mafia for decades, allowing the organized crime to get a toehold in the United States," he added.

In a statement to Newsweek, Connolly said that Hoover "abused his power and trampled the civil liberties of Dr. King, anti-war protesters, his political rivals, and too many others." "He is no role model for any time, and certainly not this one. Congress must right this wrong and rename this building," he said.

In a statement to the outlet, the FBI said that the agency was not responsible for naming the building after Hoover, rather, the name was signed into law by former President Richard Nixon after Hoover's death in 1972. The agency said, "The FBI is very much committed to all the communities we serve. We are bound by an oath to serve all citizens with equal compassion, professionalism, dignity, and respect."

In an interview with Deadline, Cohen said that he had watched 'Judas and the Black Messiah' and had been inspired to introduce the legislation to remove Hoover's name from the FBI building. “The movie is a clear depiction of his efforts to impede the civil rights movement,” Cohen said. The movie, which has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards this year, tells the story of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and William O'Neal, who worked with the FBI to assassinate him. 

Cohen said that Hoover “doesn’t deserve the honor and recognition of having the nation’s premiere law enforcement agency headquarters named for him. The civil rights we enjoy today are in spite of J. Edgar Hoover, not because of him.” He also said that he was attacked by Republicans who say that this is the latest effort in another version of "cancel culture."

Cohen said that with the nation’s reckoning over race, following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others, Hoover’s actions can be “looked upon from a different perspective.”

Calls to rename the FBI Headquarters have long inundated social media. One user had tweeted, "Why is FBI headquarters still called the J. Edgar Hoover Building? Hoover was pure evil, targeting numerous Black figures when he was head of the FBI. He spied on MLK, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Black Panthers — hell, he was likely responsible for race-based assassination attempts."