The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s missions include: to protect the American people, their priorities: to protect civil rights, their core values: diversity. At least that is what they believe in on paper, as stated in their public Mission Statement (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mission and Priorities). Throughout history, however, when it has come time to put these beliefs into action, they have often been lost in translation. The most compelling example of this, perhaps, is evident in the implementation of the Counterintelligence Program, COINTELPRO. From the way this program’s goals were stated by J. Edgar Hoover, to the way it was put into practice, this FBI program directly violated its organization’s own stated mission, priorities, and core values most prominently against the black and Puerto Rican communities.
Leading up to the 20th century the United States had experienced massive growth, not only in population and the economy, but also in crime and violence. Despite the influx in criminal activity, before 1908 there was no effective or systematic way to enforce the laws. President Roosevelt and his Attorney General, Charles Bonaparte, identified the need for a program to conduct investigations and maintain United States safety under the Department of Justice, which led to the creation of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, History). Over the next 50 years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation developed and found its niche within American society. Its many developments included the implementation of the Department of Justice’s General Intelligence Department. Along with that department came John Edgar Hoover, director of the GID who quickly rose to be appointed the director of the FBI. Under the direction of Hoover the Bureau continued to grow and became increasingly important (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Directors Then and Now).
Leading up to and during the 1960s the United States found themselves both deep in the Cold War and in the midst of a multitude of civil rights movements on behalf of different oppressed groups (Licon, 10/24/18). The increased fear of communism in the U.S. gave the FBI cause to create an operation specifically designated to disrupt communist activity in the country. The end product was the Counterintelligence Program, COINTELPRO, created in 1956 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, And Justice for All). Though this program’s purpose was claimed to be to fight communism, in analyzing the actions taken by the members and priorities addressed by the operation, it is evident that over time COINTELPRO became dedicated to stopping the progress of civil rights and nationalist groups.
One of the most clear examples of the Federal Bureau of Investigation disregarding their mission statement’s priorities of diversity and the protection of civil rights occurred in 1967. The FBI created a sub-group, COINTELPRO-Black Nationalist Hate Groups, which exclusively focused on disrupting Black political organizations and in no way targeted communism. For example, their goals read, “Prevent the COALITION of militant black nationalist groups… Prevent VIOLENCE on the part of black nationalist groups… Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining RESPECTABILITY… Prevent long range GROWTH of militant black organizations…” (Hoover). Not once in their goals is communism mentioned, making it evident that the true target of this operation was not communist groups, but rather civil rights. In every way this violates the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s priority to protect civil rights and responsibility to protect the American people that are members of this minority.
The primary targets of this sub-division of COINTELPRO were black nationalist groups, such as the Black Panthers and the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Junior. King himself is directly mentioned in the program’s goals, “Prevent the RISE OF A “MESSIAH” who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement… King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed “obedience” to “white, liberal doctrines” (nonviolence) and embrace black nationalism” (Hoover). This statement shows once again that the organization prioritized these civil rights groups as targets over communism and that they strongly associated black nationalism with violence despite the peaceful nature of the leaders and their protests.
The ways in which the program put their aforementioned goals into effect varied over time and across groups, and though they were not put into writing until 1967, similar illegal activity took place long before. From 1941 to 1966 the FBI investigated the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) via confidential informants, wiretaps, “bugs,” and financial records and never found any evidence of subversion strategies or communist sympathizing (Churchill and Van Der Wall 95). According to the same source, the SCLC stated their objectives as securing black voting rights and dismantling apartheid, yet the FBI saw them as a threat and “likely target of communist infiltration.” They went even further in infiltrating meetings and personally investigating Martin Luther King Jr. via bugs and wiretaps. Though they found no communist connections, they planted five news stories covering his organization’s “communist connections” (Churchill and Van Der Wall 96). Furthermore in 1964 when Martin Luther King Jr. was set to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of Blacks’ rights, an FBI audio technician produced a tape of King’s wiretaps as proof that he’d engaged in trysts with prostitutes and threatened to release it unless he committed suicide prior to receiving the award. This type of work in destroying King’s reputation continued long after his assassination as the FBI worked to tarnish his memory as well. COINTELPRO was not limited to these two groups as they also infiltrated and attempted to disrupt the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Black Muslim movement, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and more (Churchill and Van Der Wall 103). This is only a small set of examples of actions against civil rights groups in which the FBI violated their priority to protect civil rights by victimizing their groups and leaders. In effect they prevented progress towards equality and justified their actions on the basis of protecting the American people from communism, an unfounded and unjust fear associated with these groups.
A second set of groups that often fell victim to the Counterintelligence Program were Puerto Rican Nationalist groups. The Foraker Act and Jones Act created a relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico in which Puerto Ricans were made U.S. citizens with few rights and little to no representation (Gonzalez 61). Therefore, they turned to Nationalist groups as a means to advocate for change on their behalf that they could not achieve through politics. These included the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and later the Movimiento por Independencia Puertorriqueño as well as youth groups such as the Young Lords, which functioned to help recruit young Puerto Ricans into radical politics (Gonzalez 93).
In response to their growing popularity, Hoover suggested that the FBI utilize agents within existing divisions of COINTELPRO located in San Juan to act as agent provocateurs and prevent the coalition and unity of the groups (Churchill and Van Der Wall 69). By 1967 the San Jose office claimed to have confused leaders, exploited rivalries, inflamed conflicts, and emasculated the organizations’ potential strength. They later went on to publish fake newspaper articles destroying the reputations of Nationalist leaders and sent out warnings to radio stations that they would lose their licenses for airing pro-independence materials (Churchill and Van Der Wall 72). COINTELPRO went even further in investigating the Nationalist leaders to find personal information such as criminal records, family problems, and educational qualifications and used this as a method to discredit them and prevent them from forming alliances with other civil rights groups with a common goal and oppressor. The FBI also created leaflets accusing the leaders of Puerto Rican Nationalist groups of having communist ties. Agents were allowed to fabricate these accusations despite a complete lack of evidence. (Churchill and Van Der Wall 77). Ultimately, the FBI was successful in shutting down the Puerto Rican Nationalist Movement as a whole by preventing their recruitment efforts (Correa 20).
It is evident that many of the actions taken by COINTELPRO against these civil rights groups were not only unjustified and malicious but also illegal. Hoerl and Ortiz discuss this in their article as they investigate the covert communication techniques required to hide their true actions from other federal organizations, the target groups, and the public. Though their investigation focuses specifically on the Black Nationalist Hate Groups division of COINTELPRO, many of their findings extend and apply to all civil rights groups affected. Their findings show that the FBI used anonymous messages such as letters, leaflets, phone calls, and newspaper columns to communicate with targeted organizations, public officials, and local communities which allowed the organization to go undetected for nearly 5 years (Hoerl and Ortiz 600). What is most concerning as a reader, is that the Federal Bureau of Investigation not only participated in illegal activity that they intentionally covered up, but that they also violated many of their promised missions to the American people by working against civil rights and diversity with few, if any, consequences.
It was not until after a FBI office was burglarized that COINTELPRO’s actions became public knowledge and that the division was shut down. While the FBI now acknowledges that COINTELPRO is rightly criticized for violating the first amendment, they maintain that the FBI “had played an important and sometimes overlooked role in helping to ensure civil rights and domestic tranquility… through its criminal investigations and intelligence work” (Federal Bureau of Investigation, And Justice for All).
Even though the program has been shut down for nearly 50 years, many minority groups and individuals are still suffering the consequences of this organization’s actions. COINTELPRO played a role in the cases of over 100 political prisoners in U.S. captivity as of 2010, and to this day the illegal acts of the FBI’s COINTELPRO have not been deeply investigated, nor the victims compensated (Day and Whitehorn). Innocent groups impacted by this program are not limited to black and Puerto Rican minorities, but extend to American Indian groups, feminist groups, Mexican groups, and labor groups to name a few (Churchill and Ward).
While it is evident that in the past the Federal Bureau of Investigation has failed to uphold their own mission statement, priorities, and core values, it is imperative that moving forward