The Spook Who Sat by the Door (novel)
Encyclopedia
Sam Greenlee
Sam Greenlee is an African American writer, best known for his novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door, first published in London by Allison & Busby in March 1969, which was made into the 1973 movie of the same name and won The Sunday Times Book of the Year award...
, first published in March 1969 (in the UK by Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby is a British publishing house, set up by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher....
). The 1973 film based on the novel is of the same name The Spook Who Sat by the Door.
The novel and the film also dramatize the CIA's history of giving training to persons and/or groups who later utilize their specialized intelligence training against the agency.
Plot summary
The novel takes place in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Chicago. The book opens with Senator Hennington, a white liberal senator with a tight re-election campaign, looking for ways to win the Negro vote. His wife suggests the senator accuse the Central Intelligence AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) of racial discrimination in its hiring because the agency has no black officers. Because of Senator Hennington's investigation and subsequent comfortable re-election, the CIA has been required for political reasons to recruit African-Americans for training. Only Dan Freeman, secretly a black nationalist, successfully completes the training process. Freeman has both the highest grades and best athletic marks of his recruitment class. Stationed in Korea during the Korean War, Freeman is an expert in hand-to-hand combat, especially judo. Freeman also played football at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
.
Freeman becomes the first black man in the agency and is given a desk job—Top Secret Reproduction Center Sections Chief. Freeman understands that he is the token black person in the CIA, and that the CIA defines his function as providing proof of the agency's supposed commitment to integration and progress. Freeman is often used as a model Negro, and when asked to appear or speak at various events, he tells exactly the story the audience wishes to hear. He has a complete distaste for the "snob-ridden" world of Washington DC and especially the city's black middle-class. Therefore, after completing his training in guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
techniques, weaponry, communications and subversion, Freeman puts in just enough time to avoid raising any suspicions about his motives before he resigns from the CIA and returns to work in the social services in Chicago.
Upon his return, Freeman makes contact with the Cobras, a gang that was previously immune to contact from social agencies. Immediately Freeman begins recruiting young black men living in the inner city of Chicago to become “Freedom Fighters” teaching them all of the guerrilla warfare tactics that he learned from the CIA. The Cobras' training includes a fight with the Comanches, a rival gang; the study and appreciation of black poetry, music, and revolutionary leaders; a bank robbery on 115th and Halstead; and the robbery of a National Guard Armory on Cottage Grove Avenue. They become a guerrilla group with Freeman as the secret leader. The Freedom Fighters set out to ensure that black people truly live freely within the United States by partaking in both violent and non-violent actions throughout Chicago. The “Freedom Fighters” of Chicago begin spreading the word about their guerrilla warfare tactics across the United States; as Freeman says, “What we got now is a colony, what we want is a new nation.” As revolt and a war of liberation continues in the inner city of Chicago, the National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
and the police desperately try to stop the Freedom Fighters.
Finding the gaps in the National Guard's "sloppily trained and ill-disciplined" unit, Freeman and the Freedom Fighters escalate their actions in Chicago. First, they blow up the mayor's office in the new city hall. Second, they paint a Negro alderman's car yellow and white. Third, they take over radio stations and broadcast propaganda from, among other names, "the Freedom Fighters, the Urban Underground of Black Chicago." Fourth, they kidnap Colonel "Bull" Evans, the commander of the National Guard unit, give him LSD, then release him.
After the Freedom Fighters start their sniper attacks, killing multiple National Guardsmen, Freeman is visited by three old friends. After speaking with two female friends, Freeman's final guest is his friend and Chicago police officer Dawson. Sergeant Dawson entered Freeman's apartment on a suspicion and his suspicion is verified when he finds Freedom Fighter propaganda. After an argument, Freeman attacks Dawson and kills him. He calls in his top Freedom Fighters to dispose of the body. As the book closes, Freeman orders "Condition Red" to initiate attack teams in twelve cities across America.
Background
The novel continues to be a very important work reflecting upon the harsh realities of African Americans living in the United States in the face of racism, violence and oppression. Greenlee’s novel is, in a sense, a manual on how to be a successful revolutionary by beating the system at its own game (Peavy, 222). Greenlee demonstrates through his character Dan Freeman, how important cooperation is among oppressed peoples in the fight for equality and freedom (Joiner, 41). Greenlee, years after the release of his book and the film, reflects upon the various messages of his work: “One of the things I was saying with that book is that gangs could become the protector of the community rather than predators”(Joiner, 41). He goes on to say, “…the purpose of the film was to encourage blacks to create an action plan to ‘survive in the belly of the beast’ rather than always reacting as victims of a racist society”(Joiner, 41). By working intimately with Ivan DixonIvan Dixon
Ivan Dixon was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for his role in the 1967 telefilm The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing hundreds of episodes of television series...
, Greenlee’s powerful book was transferred to the big screen without losing its strong revolutionary messages. Yet, the film and the book were both received with great hesitation and resistance by certain sectors of society.
Historical context
The political atmosphere in the United States during the time of the book's publication was particularly contentious as civil rightsCivil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, women’s rights, and gay rights movements
Gay Liberation
Gay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
became visible in the public sphere. It is not surprising that the filmmakers felt compelled to make a movie that addressed the presence of blacks in politics as well as portraying black unity and strength. Furthermore, prior to the movie’s release, Martin Luther King was assassinated, as were other significant civil rights figures in the sixties. Tim Reid
Tim Reid
Timothy L. "Tim" Reid is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati , Marcel "Downtown" Brown on Simon & Simon , Ray Campbell on Sister, Sister and William Barnett on That 70's Show...
, whose company helped to release Spook on DVD, said to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
in 2004:
"When you look back at the times...Martin Luther King was assassinated, Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, Bobby Kennedy. Black people were really angry and frustrated; we were tired of seeing our leaders killed. What do we do? Do we have a revolution? There is nothing that comes close to this movie in terms of black radicalism." (Beale, 2004)
Reid notes how Spook served as a reactionary piece in the way that it addressed the feelings of black people during the late sixties and early seventies.
Soon after its release, The Spook Who Sat By the Door was removed from theaters as a result of its politically controversial message. Prior to its release on DVD in 2004, it was a relatively difficult film to get. In a feature for NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, Karen Bates reported that the director of the film, Ivan Dixon
Ivan Dixon
Ivan Dixon was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for his role in the 1967 telefilm The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing hundreds of episodes of television series...
, admitted that United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
would not show the film in a way that would allow its political message to come through when clips were viewed prior to the film’s public release. “Dixon says when United Artists screened the finished product and saw a Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...
version of political Armageddon, they were stunned” (NPR article, 2004). Perhaps it is a testament to the powerful message of the film that it was deemed potentially too influential, as if the film would encourage black people to militantly rebel against the white power structure.
Title
The title refers to a practice in the early days of affirmative actionAffirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
, when the first Black person hired by a company or agency would be seated close to the office entrance, so that all who came and went could see that the company was racially mixed.
The word "Spook" in the title has a dual meaning: it has been used as a racial slur against Blacks, as well as a slang term for a spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
.