COINTELPRO: The FBI’s War on Civil Rights Leaders

COINTELPRO stands for Counter Intelligence Program and was one of the darker aspects of U.S. history, where law enforcement and political repression came together at a point of high social movement. This clandestine operation was founded by the FBI in the late 1950s to neutralize the gains being made in the civil rights movement and undermine groups desiring social justice and change.

But at its heart, COINTELPRO was a program designed to monitor and undermine the civil rights leadership and their work. Of the many targets of this operation, one of the most high-profile was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose resonant voice had become the face of racial equality. The FBI used a range of underhanded methods, ranging from surveillance to spreading misinformation to attempts at character assassination, in trying to discredit King and other key figures in the movement. By implanting their agents into the ranks of activist groups, the FBI tried to create friction and internal division that strongly hampered their progress and unity.

The impact of COINTELPRO on political activism within the United States was deeply expansive and long-lasting. Not only did it implicitly slow the advance of the then-civil rights movement, but it also cultivated an atmosphere of distrust and paranoia among activists. These invasive and illegal methods were a scar that has echoed even to this day, as debates about government overreach, civil liberties, and protection of activists commonly invoke the dark legacy of COINTELPRO.

Let this be a summary: COINTELPRO is a salient reminder of the extent to which those in power will go in order to maintain the status quo. The FBI's actions—spying on, disrupting, and undermining civil rights leaders—stand as an unusually stark example of just how fragile democracy can be in the face of repression by those at the levers of power. This ugly chapter in history is one that a people desirous of justice and equality should continue to study, if only to prevent the ghosts of that past from continuing to haunt the struggle.