A Guide to the Burt Gerding Papers, 1959-1980, 1994

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.

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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.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Use of audio material by appointment only; please contact sound archivist for more information.

Use of video material by appointment only; please contact repository for more information.

Use Restrictions

The donor retains copyright on all materials by the creator. Written permission must be obtained from copyright holder in order to photocopy or publish from the collection.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Burt Gerding Papers, 1959-1980, 1994 Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Erin Donohue, March 2014.

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Detailed Description of the Papers

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