Jean Seberg Commits Suicide (1979)

Thu Aug 30, 1979

On this day in 1979, actress Jean Seberg committed suicide after years of harassment, intimidation, and defamation by the FBI after she gave several donations to the Black Panther Party.

Jean Dorothy Seberg (1938 - 1979) was an American actress, supporter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) “COINTELPRO” program.

In the late 1960s, Seberg provided financial support to various groups supporting civil rights, including the NAACP as well as Native American school groups such as the Meskwaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town.

The FBI became aware of several gifts Seberg had made to the BPP, totaling just over $10k in contributions. The FBI operation against Seberg, directly overseen by J. Edgar Hoover, began to harass, intimidate, defame, and discredit her.

The FBI’s stated goal was an unspecified “neutralization” of Seberg with a subsidiary objective to “cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public”, while taking the “usual precautions to avoid identification of the Bureau”. The FBI spread a false rumor about her pregnancy, claiming she was bearing the child of a BPP member, which was repeated frequently in the press. She was also effectively blacklisted from Hollywood films at this time.

On August 30th, 1979, Seberg committed suicide, writing “Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves”. Romain Gary, Seberg’s husband, called a press conference shortly after Seberg’s death, publicly blaming the FBI’s campaign against her for her deteriorating mental health.

• Date: 1979-08-30
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org