Burt Gerding papers

Collection

Identifier: urn:taro:utexas.cah.03430

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Burt Gerding Papers (1959-1980, 1994) document the activities of the Austin Police Department during the tumultuous period of the mid-1960s to early 1970s. During this time, the UT campus was alive with political activity and student protests about the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. The Gerding Papers highlight the political and social climate of the time, as well as the extensive and oftentimes controversial police surveillance conducted on Austin political activists.

The UT Austin Student Political Activities (1959-1976, 1994) series includes extensive clippings from political newspapers such as The Rag, as well as political handouts for student groups including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Student Mobilization Committee (SMC), and the Young Socialists Alliance (YSA). The series contains many photos of student meetings and protests, as well as film and audio reels of protests. Police reports, legal information, and reports from Gerding’s student informants are also included. Also in this series are police surveillance videos that formerly comprised the Patrick McGarrigle Collection and protest photographs that formerly comprised the Art Osborn Collection. This series contains cassette tape recordings of a 1994 oral history interview with Gerding, as well as a full transcript.

The Narcotics Division (1964-1973) series contains informational pamphlets on narcotics laws and regulations, anti-drug handouts and other marketing materials, and training materials for Narcotics Agents.

The Westinghouse Electric (1970-1980) series relates to Gerding’s position in security at Westinghouse after his time with Austin PD. This series primarily consists of security notes and surveillance photos, as well as labor, management, and union publications.

Archivist’s note:

The materials formerly comprising the Art Osborn [92-337] and Patrick McGarrigle [2001-164] Collections have been merged with the Burt Gerding Papers.

Dates

Creation: 1959 - 1980
Creation: 1994

Creator

Gerding, Edward Burton, 1927-2013 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Access to some audiovisual formats requires an appointment; contact repository for more information.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright restrictions may apply; contact repository for more information.

Written permission is required to reproduce or publish collection material; contact repository for more information.

Biographical Note

Burt Gerding was a former lieutenant in the Austin Police Department known for his role monitoring students and political activities at University of Texas at Austin in the 1960s and early 70s. Gerding was born in Greenville, Texas and raised in Dallas. Upon graduating high school, he joined the US Navy as a corpsman and served in World War II. In 1950, after telling a friend in the Austin Police Department (APD) that “anyone could be a cop,” Gerding took and passed the police entrance exam to prove his point. He officially joined APD in March 1950. In 1953, Gerding became a Sergeant with the APD Forgery Detail.

By the early 1960s, Gerding was promoted to lieutenant and lead the Criminal Investigation Division. Assigned to the University District, he interacted frequently with the UT Police Department and UT students. During the integration movement of the early 60s, Gerding monitored pro-integration demonstrations and protests, including the Wheedon service station incident and the Roy’s Drugstore protest, which drew between 4,000 and 5,000 people.

Gerding also worked as an APD Intelligence Officer. In consultation with UTPD and the FBI, Gerding monitored the activities of suspected campus radicals and leftist student political activists. Through FBI agent and friend George Carlson, Gerding worked with agents from the FBI’s secret Counterintelligence Program, known as COINTELPRO. The program was established in 1956 to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” American political groups that were considered threatening or subversive. COINTELPRO most frequently targeted leftist groups, including communist and socialist organizations, Black Power groups, and anti-Vietnam-war groups.

In consultation with FBI agents, Gerding used controversial and sometimes illegal counterintelligence techniques to monitor and disrupt leftist organizations and activists on and around the UT Austin campus, including students and faculty members. Common methods included legal harassment (such as excessive traffic stops), divulgence of private personal information, vandalism, psychological warfare (such as anonymous letters and propagation of false or misleading information), and warrantless break-ins. Gerding frequently utilized the services of student informants, many of whom were paid by the FBI, to report on the activities of political activists, as well as campus events. Gerding extensively targeted the leftist political groups Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Student Mobilization Committee (SMC), and the Black Panther Party with the goal of discrediting them and ultimately forcing them to disband or leave Austin.

In the early 1970s, Gerding was transferred to the APD Narcotics Division, where he worked as a Narcotics Agent. After leaving APD, Gerding went to work for Westinghouse Electric in Round Rock, Texas, where he did security work. Gerding died in March 2013.

Sources:

Deflem, M. 2008. Surveillance and Governance. Bingley: JAI Press.

Dreyer, T. 2006. The Spies of Texas. The Texas Observer, 17 November.