We Are Your FBI

Despite the FBI's generation-long public relations campaign to bury the image of the corn-fed, crew-cut G-Man, the Bureau's legacy as a white man's redoubt remains largely intact. It was not until the month after J. Edgar Hoover's death in 1972 that the FBI training academy (located on the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia) admitted its first female applicant. When Jane Turner attended the academy in 1978, sherecalls, "They still counted race and gender. I was female agent number 100-and-something. And I was in class with the number 6 Native American."

According to Turner, the modern FBI takes care to put women and minorities in visible positions such as media liaison at HQ and in the field offices. Outside public view, the picture has changed less than the Bureau might like to suggest. The following numbers were compiled from the 2000 U.S. Census and from employment data at the FBI's website dating to June 30, 2003.

By the numbers:

White men

African Americans

Hispanics

Asian Americans

Native Americans

Women

FBI Executive Staff