COINTELPRO

COINTELPRO was a covert FBI program that surveilled, infiltrated, and disrupted political organizations and activists in the United States, chiefly from 1956 to 1971.

FBI: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the United States’ principal federal law-enforcement and domestic intelligence agency. FBI agents and field offices carried out the program under bureau leadership.
J. Edgar Hoover: J. Edgar Hoover directed the FBI from 1924 until his death in 1972. Hoover authorized and shaped the bureau’s covert campaigns against political movements.
Black Panther Party: The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary Black nationalist organization founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. The FBI directed an intensive campaign against the party, seeking to disrupt its leadership and programs.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects freedoms including speech, press, assembly, and petition. Operations against political advocacy brought the program into direct conflict with protected freedoms.
Surveillance: Surveillance is the systematic observation or monitoring of people, places, or communications. Monitoring activists supplied information used to select targets and plan operations.
Cold War: The Cold War was the prolonged geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II. Anti-communist priorities formed a major backdrop to the program’s early targets.
Martin Luther King Jr.: Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader who advocated nonviolent protest. The FBI surveilled King and tried to undermine his standing through covert pressure and threatening communications.
Civil liberties: Civil liberties are protections against government interference with individual freedoms. COINTELPRO became a prominent example of government action threatening these protections.
Infiltration: Infiltration is the insertion of agents or informants into an organization to gather information or influence its activity. Informants and undercover agents penetrated organizations targeted by the FBI.
McCarthyism: McCarthyism was a period of anti-communist investigations and accusations in the United States, especially during the early 1950s. The program continued a political climate in which alleged subversion was treated as a domestic threat.

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