A Spy in Canaan

Iconic Civil Rights Photographer's Double Life as an FBI Informant Guest: Marc Perrusquia, Investigative Journalist at the "Commercial Appeal" in Memphis, Author of "A Spy in Canaan" We’ve known for a long time that the FBI was spying on key figures in the civil rights movement. But when an investigative journalist at the "Commercial Appeal" newspaper in Memphis revealed that a black photographer named Ernest Withers had been an FBI informant, most people found it hard to believe. Withers’ photos were iconic. He’s been called “the original photographer of the civil rights movement.” Martin Luther King, Junior knew and liked him. Withers was so trusted that he went places no white person – and few black journalists, for that matter - could have gone. All the while, he was reporting back to the FBI on what he’d seen and heard. It’s a stunning story that took years for journalist Marc Perrusquia to unravel. He’s written it all down now in a new book called “A Spy in Canaan.” Shooting Ghosts (Originally aired 11/10/17) Guests: Thomas James Brennan, Retired Marine Corps Sergeant, Founder, The War Horse, Co-author, “Shooting Ghosts” with Finbarr O’Reilly, Photojournalist The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now America’s longest running conflict. More than two-and-a-half million veterans have served in those wars. Retired Marine Corps sergeant Thomas James Brennan is one of them. He’s a Purple Heart recipient and now an investigative journalist. He’s co-written an unusual memoir in partnership with combat photographer Finbarr O’Reilly. They met in a remote outpost of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2010. What they experienced there formed the basis of a friendship that has brought both of them a measure a comfort as they’ve struggled with the psychological effects of war.