Nearly 50 years after the death of founding FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, research may reveal that the crime fighting bureau chief was actually African-American according to “The Washington Post.”

“My grandfather told me that this powerful man, Edgar, was his second cousin, and was passing for white,” says Millie McGhee, an African-American relative of Hoover’s. “If we talked about this, [Edgar] was so powerful he could have us all killed. I grew up terrified about all this.”

McGhee began to uncover facts about the possibility of Hoover’s Black ethnicity after she dug through altered court records, conducted oral interviews with both white and Black Hoovers and enlisted licensed genealogists who determined that Hoover was indeed a relative of hers.

The mystery of Hoover’s genealogy has become a topic of interest recently due to the the Clint Eastwood film “J. Edgar” released earlier this month. In the film, Eastwood makes no mention of Hoover’s race, much to the chagrin of his Black relatives such as McGhee.

“Since the movie has come out, so many people have asked me why my information about Hoover’s black roots was not included,” said McGhee who has authored two books on the topic, “Secrets Uncovered: J.Edgar Hoover-The Relative” and “Secrets Uncovered : J. Edgar Hoover Passing For White?”

Could J. Edgar Hoover also be African-American?

In some quarters this racial rumor has been whispered about as widely as Hoover’s sexuality. Eastwood’s avoidance of the issue adds intrigue to the movie’s main storyline. As Hoover was digging up dirt on presidents, spying and harassing civil rights leaders, he was cross-dressing and carrying on an affair with Clyde Tolson, the FBI’s number two man.

McGhee said: “In the late 1950s, I was a young girl growing up in rural McComb, Mississippi. A story had been passed down through several generations that the land we lived on was owned by the Hoover family. My grandfather told me that this powerful man, Edgar, was his second cousin, and was passing for white. If we talked about this, he was so powerful he could have us all killed. I grew up terrified about all this.”

But later as an educator and researcher she unearthed enough information by digging through altered court records, oral interviews with both white and black Hoovers and the help of licensed genealogists to substantiate the rumors she had heard as a child that Hoover was a relative. “Because of Edgar’s anti-black history, I am not proud of this lineage but history must be based on truth,” she said.

Author Anthony Summers, in his 1993 book Official and Confidential, said that he found that in some black communities in the East, it was generally believed Edgar had black roots and was even referred to as a “soul brother.” Writer Gore Vidal, who grew up in Washington, D.C. in the 1930s also said in an interview: “It was always said in my family and around the city that Hoover was mulatto. And that he came from a family that passed.”

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