From Pinkerton to G-Man: The Transition from Private to State Political Repression, 1873-1956

Year 2004, Issue: 20, 57 - 82, 01.10.2004

John Drabble

Abstract

Between 1956 and 1971, the Federal Bureau of Investigation carried out a series of domestic counterintelligence programs COINTELPROs , which endeavored to "expose, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize" social movements which the FBI deemed threatening to internal security. 1 In addition to groups such as the Communist Party-USA, which had links to a foreign power, these domestic covert action programs targeted indigenous Ku Klux Klan and revolutionary groups such as the Black Panther Party. COINTELPRO also targeted nonviolent organizations such as the Socialist Worker’s Party, the Nation of Islam, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, New Left groups, and other groups that sought systematic change.