The Dies Committee Listing William Pickens

In February of 1943 Martin Dies presented a report from the Dies committee, listing William Pickens as a person of interest for “being a member or sponsor of certain organizations which are purported to be Un-American”(Pt.4 1). Pickens, an author, orator, educator, and civil rights leader, was interviewed later that year by special agents of the FBI. The FBI asks Pickens questions about several organizations he may have been involved with over his years. Picken’s responses range from defending his involvement, to completely denying involvement with certain organizations. The FBI’s command of information relating to Picken's life, and Picken’s claimed difficulty remembering, remind us of the imperfection of memory and the sheer information advantage

Jordan asks Mr. Pickens about several events that Mr. Pickens had clearly not assigned much importance. Yet during this interview Mr.Pickens does not get to decide which interactions in his life are meaningful. Mr. Pickens has to think back to a petition that he signed three years ago and only had a faint memory of. In another case, Pickens is listed as a sponsor for another organization that he remembers nothing about. When asked about being a guest of honor at another event, Pickens admits that he,“Cannot say ‘yes’ or ‘no’” and he states, “I go to so many things”(Pt.1 4). Mr. Pickens was only there to hear what the government thought was notable about his past actions. The FBI even tells Mr.Pickens he is listed as the Vice-chairman of the publication “Fight”, while Mr. Pickens states he has never even read the publication. Pickens was made more suspicious in the eyes of the government by an association he did not even know he had. While Pickens cannot be bothered to remember certain parts of his past, he is matched against the FBI, which keeps track of anything they find worthy of remembering. The FBI seems to remember more about Pickens interactions and action than Pickens himself remembers. When Pickens is corrected about aspects of his own past, it does start to make him look more suspicious, regardless of his actual innocence or

The FBI’s extensive knowledge on every organization, paired with the Dies committee's focus on communism, meant Pickens was left to defend his motives and intentions to a suspicious entity that simply knew more about the organizations than Pickens ever did. When asked about potentially helping to stop arms shipments to Europe with the American League Against War and Fascism, Pickens states, “All I was interested in was to get charity money for these people” (Pt.1 5) In a similar vein, when asked about the NAACP, Pickens claims, “I worked with them for over thirty years, but only for the advancement of the colored people”(Pt.1 6). Pickens preemptively defended himself from what he knew was a question rooted in the government's concern over the NAACP’s relationship with the Communist Party. Pickens either did not know that communists were involved in certain organizations he had interacted with, or was concerned with non-political aspects of the group. However, the FBI knew more about members and was certainly concerned with political aspects of these groups. When questioned about the Civil Liberties Union, Pickens states, “Politics did not enter it. I never pretended to be a communist. They knew it”(Pt.1 4). Whether Pickens was truly uninterested in communist aspects, or if he was trying to hide his true reasons for being in these groups, his task was made harder thanks to the