'What Colour are You?': FBI Counter-Intelligence and the Targeting of White Hate and Black Extremist Groups in the 1960s
Date
2018-07-26
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Abstract
From 1954 until 1972, the Federal Bureau of Investigations operated a sustained counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) against subversive organizations including Black Extremist groups like the Black Panther Party and White Hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. With a mandate to neutralize the activities and minimize the risk of violence posed by the targeted organizations, COINTELPRO was one of the largest and most invasive domestic counter-intelligence programs ever run in the United States. Considering the size and breath of targets identified by COINTELPRO, this study examines the extent to which the Bureau demonstrated differential behaviour when targeting Black Extremist groups versus White Hate groups and explores why such differential behaviour existed. Based upon an analysis of COINTELPRO documents, the results suggest that despite having the same mandate to neutralize threats posed by subversive organizations, the interpretation of neutralization was distinctly different for White Hate groups versus Black Extremism. In COINTELPRO-White Hate operations, the neutralization of threat was achieved through controlling and containing the activities of the target organization. In COINTELPRO-Black Extremism operations, however, neutralization was achieved through eliminating the target organization. This fundamental difference in how Bureau agents interpreted their mandate naturally created a difference in operational methods and outcomes that are also addressed in this study. Explaining the differential behaviour by the Bureau lies in understanding the relationship between the targeted organizations, the purpose of COINTELPRO as a program, and the political orientation of the Bureau during this time period. While Black Extremist organizations such as the Black Panther Party firmly fit within the established image of subversive organizations due to their political orientation, White Hate organizations like the Klan did not, and as a result, were never considered as substantial a threat within the Bureau. This ambivalence towards the political orientation of White Hate organizations yielded COINTELPRO operations that not only failed to fully neutralize the threat posed by these groups, but allowed alternate, and potentially more dangerous, White Hate organizations to flourish well beyond the cancellation of COINTELPRO in 1972.
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Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counter-Intelligence, COINTELPRO, Ku Klux Klan, Black Panther Party, North Carolina, 1960s, Black Extremism, White Hate
Citation
Stieva, K. (2018). What Colour are You?': FBI Counter-Intelligence and the Targeting of White Hate and Black Extremist Groups in the 1960s (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32712