During the early 1960’s of the JFK administration, American culture, politics and ideologies underwent a major transformation. JFK sloganized “The New Frontier”. This agenda was hyper focused on social reform, addressing the modern problems of civil rights and creating sustainable economic growth opportunities for Americans in a progressive direction. In this short time period, the white house led a cultural shift that felt youthful and optimistic. At the time JFK was the youngest president ever elected, and the first president born in the 1900s. Meanwhile Dwight Eisenhower leaving office before him was the oldest president ever at the time. You could see and feel the difference immediately. This optimism and agendas that sprung from a new age of Americans and their thinking empowered many revolutionary thinkers and speakers that will be remembered forever in American history. The stage was now set for many civil rights leaders and political organizations to come to the fore front. Names like Martin Luther King Jr, Cesar Chavez and Timothy Leary became household names for Americans with any knowledge of politics. Not to mention political organizations such as the Black Panther Party and other Black liberation movements, Anti-Vietnam groups, LGBTQ groups, American Indian movements and Chicano/Latino coalitions all sprung to fame with their cohesiveness against the system that troubled them. Social and political conscious was at an all-time high. Government entities such as the FBI became fearful of the conscious revolution from all demographics. With cities burning from riots and social unrest, and social change bearing down with cultural revolutions the FBI created a surveillance and infiltration program called COINTELPRO. Short for Counterintelligence Program, this program was an undercover, mostly illegal operation that clearly violated citizens’ rights.
This operation was in effect from 1956-1971. Designed to infiltrate, disrupt and destroy any political organization or political socialite that they deemed dangerous. Started by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the goals of COINTELPRO were to “prevent the rise of a messiah” who could unify Black movements, disrupt the functionality and reputation of activist groups. And lastly, to create artificial conflicts between organizations and its leaders by discrediting leaders in media and creating disinformation in many forms that we will get to later in the writing. I think it is very noteworthy and speaks to the entire picture, that J Edgar Hoover and JFK were not buddies at all. Hoover and the Kennedy’s had a very rocky relationship because the two were on total opposite sides of the spectrum ideology wise and rightfully so, did not trust one another. So, I only mention the fact of Hoover and Kennedy being almost enemies because it speaks to the larger picture of their visions for America and who prevailed. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. COINTELPRO was in effect until 1971. I’m not saying the FBI and/or the CIA, any of these 3 letter organizations had something to do with JFK and RFK’s assassinations, but I’m also not saying that they aren’t connected (wink wink).
You name it, the FBI did it. Wiretaps, mail tampering, informants, undercover agents, rumors in media, harassment through law with police arrests and legal manipulation, factored in with flat out violence by police factions. The FBI and COINTELPRO raised literal hell on political activists within their targets. The majority of the tactics used by the FBI were gross violations of civilian liberties and also a total misuse and abuse of government authority. Through media the FBI spread propaganda about Black leaders to tarnish their reputations. The FBI is who created the idea of MLK having nefarious sexual encounters. The FBI is who sent MLK anonymous letters trying to blackmail him, threaten him and tell him to commit suicide “or else”. This same intimidation tactics are found with the FBI and its relationship with the Black Panther Party. It is documented that the FBI spread lies in media about the Panthers being violent, lawless criminals. The FBI created the narrative that the Panther Party wasn’t a peaceful organization aimed at community building. When in reality the party was running free breakfast programs for school kids in almost every single major metropolitan city… doing the work the government would not. To create division amongst Panther Party leaders the FBI falsified documents, planted fake material and sent fake mail sent to each other that in result made party leaders turn on each other because of mistrust. Because this was the 1960s and not modern times, the lack of technology made it difficult for members across the country to stay in contact. If you were a party leader and you received a piece of mail from another member across the country, you would assume it was real and not an FBI created document. The sabotaging of organizational efforts is found in more than just Black Americans plight. The FBI used these same dirty tricks to create and further division amongst Chicano/ Latino and United Farm Working organizations, radical Anti-war leftist groups and labor union rights groups. Which all felt the brunt of FBI interference. Any entity that was deemed too radical faced some type of interference.
8 activists known as the Citizens commission plotted for 4 months on breaking into the FBI headquarters. On March 8th, 1971, their plan became a success. These activists broke into the field office of the FBI located in Pennsylvania. What they found forever would change the nature of Americans and their relationship with government agencies forever. The documents found and stolen out of the headquarters proved how the FBI targeted these civil rights leaders and organizations through surveillance, infiltration, harassment and disinformation. After stealing the files, the activists took them straight to the Washington Post and the New York Times. As you can imagine, this became a bombshell of a story quickly. All the skeptics, critics and conspiracy theorists who believed the government would go to these extreme lengths to control the population were right. It was maybe one of the greatest “I told you so” events ever. The government was exposed for overstepping its authority and was now under total scrutiny.
The Exposure of COINTELPRO was huge in the sense socially it drew a line for many people with how they deal with the government. But in the aspect of justice, there was really no such thing. There was no remedy for these people who suffered at the hands of the government. The FBI was never held accountable for its actions. The U.S Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities was created to do an in-depth investigation on the FBI. Nobody, not even J Edgar Hoover who was the ringleader for the operation was held seriously accountable. The Committee agreed and admitted that COINTELPRO was an illegal politically motivated program that clearly violated the rights of citizens. The depth of their punishment was not shit. Following the investigation, no arrests were made, no firings were made also, the only punishment for some COINTELPRO agents was that they were reassigned to new duties. In 1985, the FBI was forced to pay 1.1 million dollars out to members of the Black Panther Party. But the damage done was worth way more than the 1.1 million. Besides those few examples of punishment, I haven’t found anything remotely worth noting that relates to punishment or accountability for COINTELPRO and its agents. I mean for God’s sake the FBI killed Fred Hampton (Black panther party chair member) at 21 years old in an ambush in front of his pregnant wife in the middle of the night. The evils that the FBI carried out will be remembered forever.
The negative legacy that the FBI created now speaks to the profound mistrust of governmental institutions that citizens hold. The exposure of COINTELPRO showed just how far government officials and branches will go to harm citizens, especially when there is no aspect of them being held accountable or facing any punishment after. Marginalized communities have a lingering skepticism and ill feelings towards law enforcement like agencies and institutions. This perpetually adds fuel to the fire of the “deep state” activity skepticism that is so spoken about today in 2025. The fuel for modern conspiracy theories will always be there. Lastly, the impact the FBI had on the decimation of Black leadership cannot be understated. The FBI single handedly fractured and retarded the ability for Blacks to have community empowerment and any type of self-determination. Social programs and overall political representation would be much more superior and resourceful in our reality today if it wasn’t for the FBI’s actions. The distrust in institutions has also created a psychological generational trauma passed down. Which in result has fractured Black peoples organizing when it comes to voting especially. In order to Power the People, we must realize what the FBI has done, admit there is a problem and then address how we can move forward with our own healing because obviously the government doesn’t feel the need to. “Let me just say, peace to you if you are willing to fight for it.” – Fred Hampton.
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