Under Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) was aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political groups within the United States. In the 1960’s, COINTELPRO’s targets frequently included civil rights activists, both those who espoused non-violence, like Martin Luther King, and those that Hoover referred to as “black nationalist hate groups,” like the Black Panthers. This document outlines the program’s goals in attempting to limit the effectiveness of such groups. In practice, the FBI used infiltration, legal harassment, disinformation and sometimes extra-legal intimidation and violence against King, the Panthers, and other black activist groups in its attempt to discredit and disrupt them.