What's done in the dark shall come to light

COINTELPRO is an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program, and was a series of covert, and often time illegal actions conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI had aims to survey, infiltrate, discredit, and or disrupt domestic political organizations. In other words, according to Griffith and Baker "a government agency's decision to take the law into its own hands for the "greater good" of the country" (pg. 252). 

Memorandum from COINTELPRO

The program would attack any group or individual that the FBI deemed subversive-another fancy term that basically means that "you're not going along with the status quo." The program which lasted about 15 years would terrorize the Civil Rights Movement leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Nationalist party. Additionally, the same program intended to protect the American public and political systems would also harass and undermine the American Indian Movement and the women's rights movement. How could the government enact laws to protect its citizens and their freedom of speech and yet birth "secret" organizations that would limit those same freedoms are a mystery to me, however, it shows just how secretive the American system is from its very foundation. 

                                       Fred Hampton, Sr. assassinated using COINTELPRO

This blog post is dedicated to Mr. Fred Hampton, Sr. 1948-1969

Citations:

Griffith, Robert. "The FBI's Secret Campaign Against the New Left, 1968-1971." Major Problems in American History since 1945. [S.l.]: Wadsworth, 2013. N. pag. Print.