The FBI was opposed to BMC, frequently investigating faculty who were suspected communists, including Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Paul Radin, and Buckminster Fuller. The FBI also charged BMC with fraud involving the G.I. Bill, a bill offering schools federal funding if they took in veterans. They claimed that veterans at BMC weren’t receiving an adequate education due to BMC’s erratic scheduling (classes being held at irregular hours) and haphazard documentation. The school and the people investigated were eventually cleared of all charges.
"A very unusual type of school, for example, a student may do nothing all day and in the middle of the night may decide he wants to paint or write, which he does, and he may call upon his teachers at this time for guidance. They advised that everything is left to the desires of the individual."
- Black Mountain College's FBI file
As idyllic as it seemed, Black Mountain College also suffered its share of scandals, opposition, and barriers to its success.
"FBI people showed up all the time and they looked like something out of a grade B movie. They always had trench coats on and you could spot them a mile away. And of course the students at Black Mountain put on an act for them. Like one of the favorite student tricks was to not have shoes on in the middle of the winter, and to crunch out a cigarette butt with their bare feet. So everybody did their best to please them, you know. It confirmed their worst opinions and we did not answer any of their questions."
~ Dorothea Rockburne
The surrounding community viewed the people at Black Mountain College as threats,creating another barrier for BMC. In the words of Dorothea Rockburne, an alumni of Black Mountain, “They (the townspeople) hated us. And it was very much the Bible Belt, you know, and we were considered sinners. When we went into the little town of Black Mountain, we were looked on as potential shoplifters”.
"A page of an FBI investigation into Black Mountain College" courtesy Documentcloud.org, 1956