The Counterintelligence Program: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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The Counterintelligence Program, also referred to as the COINTELPRO, was a Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) secret program during the 1960s. The purpose of this program was to eliminate “radical” political opposition in the United States. One of the main targeted groups for this program was the Black Movement groups and leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an activist and prominent leader of the African American Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated by a sniper in 1968. The death of King is in connection to COINTELPRO, as there is evidence of a death threat letter. In the letter he was called a fraud, discredited, harassed, and threatened. His speech, I’ve Been to the Top of the Mountaintop, was his final public address on April 3, 1968.