Fifty years ago, when the Manson murders were daily headline news, the reporting emphasized anything that might pass for “hippie behavior,” while playing down Manson’s intended goal to start a race war. The dog-whistling, race-based law and order tropes of politicians couldn’t have this degenerate agreeing with their we-don’t-say-it-out-loud messaging. Manson didn’t pull the idea out of thin air. He was just being honest about what his actual goals were. At just about any protest nowadays you are likely to see a gaggle of beige Gravy Seals waddling around with giant guns that they barely have the strength to lift. They are armed and ready for anything that doesn’t require too much physical exertion. So, who exactly was this war against?

In the late 1960s the Black community started to really get organized. The Black Panthers offered a visual flourish of paramilitary style that triggered the worst fears of the white hood set. In 1969 a novel by Sam Greenlee dealing with Black militancy finally found a publisher in the UK (after being rejected by numerous US publishers). In 1973 it was adapted into a film. Both were titled The Spook Who Sat By the Door. The titular “spook” was a double pun. It was a word that derogatorily referred to both Black people and spies. Although the film came out at the height of the Blaxploitation genre, it feels more professional than many films of that ilk. The filmmaker had spent five seasons (1965–71) as a cast member (the sole Black one) of Hogan’s Heroes.

“By the door” was code for placing a minority where they would be the first person that people saw when they visited your place of business. The plot concerns a call by higher-ups to integrate the CIA. The head honchos of the CIA (crackers in polyester) recruit a number of Black men and devise a training program so rigorous that nobody can pass it. With each round of eliminations, one small unassuming man in glasses survives. He refuses to join parties, and toes the line so completely that the others start calling him an Uncle Tom. His humble demeanor causes the bosses to actually be happy that somebody survived, to sit by the door. He is given a really fancy title that translates to “photocopy machine operator,” where he continues to build his data base of knowledge. When politicians come to visit, he is tasked with giving them the tour. He is the perfect token.

Then he quits to pursue “social work.” This social work turns out to consist of teaching his fellow community members everything he learned at the CIA. The community is portrayed much like the Black Panther communities in a best case scenario. They employ some Oceans Eleven–level subterfuge to appropriate a giant cache of weapons. The movie ends with well-trained and well-armed Black militias staging the first volleys of a race war in every major US city.

Bowing to government pressure, the film was buried by the studio, until somebody decided to give it a DVD release in the mid-aughts. The negative was found in a mislabeled film can. It is now available on DVD and a full version often turns up on YouTube. This year it was featured as a revival selection at the NY Film Festival. Given how well this film has aged, its second life is well deserved.