James E. Amos was a very early Black FBI agent who joined the then Bureau of Investigation in the wake of James Wormley Jones.
Amos also served as a bodyguard to numerous senators, secretaries, and other mover and shakers of early 20th century Washington D.C.
All of this made Amos a sure-fire pick as an agent for the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner to the FBI.
From 1921 until 1953, James E. Amos often doing infiltration assignments into what would’ve been considered “subversive elements” and groups under J. Edgar Hoover’s Bureau.
Two years prior, James Amos would be one of the agents who investigated Marcus Garvey, the UNIA, and Black Star.
James E. Amos like Jones would be the first to infiltrate organizations meant to empower Blacks for the federal government but he definitely wouldn’t be the last.
