COINTELPRO Collection

Title: COINTELPRO Collection

Dates: 1964-2011 (bulk 1978-1981)

Collection Number: FA-DOC 510

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 52 documents

Repository: Freedom Archives

Abstract: This collection contains material on the FBI program COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program.) This program served to disrupt, destroy and infiltrate many progressive organizations during the 1960s-1970s in the U.S.

Language of Material: English

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COINTELPRO Collection. Freedom Archives

This collection contains material on the FBI program COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program). This program served to disrupt, destroy and infiltrate many progressive organizations during the 1960's-1970's in the U.S. This existence of the program was discovered and made public during a break-in at a FBI offices in Media, Pennsylvania. The anti-war activists had intended to destroy draft records but when they found evidence of a larger web of government repression, they kept the documents and released it to the public. This sparked public outrage and resulted in Congress convening the Church Committee to investigate. While no government officials were ever held criminally accountable for the program and the subsequent frame-ups, assassinations and arrests, a number of civil suits were filed. The vast majority of our materials are drawn from two organizations, The Committee for the Suit Against Government Misconduct and The National Taskforce for COINTELPRO Litigation and Research. Both of these organizations organized around those imprisoned by COINTELPRO and distributed information about the program and its lasting effects on movements for national liberation. The National Taskforce for COINTELPRO Litigation and Research led the struggle to expose COINTELPRO attacks on the Black Liberation struggle. By educating and organizing, and by coordinating law suits filed by Assata Shakur, the Republic of New Afrika 11 and others, the Task Force has worked to expose the depths of government attacks and to free some of its major targets. The Committee for the Suit Against Government Misconduct worked under the leadership of National Task Force for COINTELPRO Litigation and Research as part of the growing movement against government counterintelligence. Members of the Committee are plaintiffs in Clark v. USA, a major civil law suit against the FBI, Justice Department, Richard Nixon, John Mitchell and others. The plaintiffs have been named as targets of illegal activities for which ex-FBI officials have been convicted on criminal charges.