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COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents from 1956 to 1971 - their work broadly targeted radical political organizations. Since the early 1950s, the Communist Party was illegal in the United States, and the US Senate and House of Representatives each set up investigating committees to prosecute communists and publicly expose them. (The House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy). However, Supreme Court rulings in 1956 and 1957 questioned the constitutionality of Smith Act prosecutions and Subversive Activities Control Board hearings. This did not stop the local and state govenments from starting up their own vigilance committees. In addition, the FBI created COINTELPRO which was designed to "neutralize" radicals such as civil rights or peace and anti-arms race activists, many of whom were said to be part of "communist front organizations." The FBI led over 2000 COINTELPRO operations until it was officially discontinued in April of 1971.

includes listings such as Betty Shabazz, Freedom Riders, Benjamin Hooks (his mother and aunt were from Kentucky), White Supremacist Groups

SNYC was created in 1937 after a group of young blacks from Virginia traaveled to the National Negro Congress meeting in Chicago, Illinios in 1936. The newly created SNYC created campaignes for anti-lynching in the south and after 12 years had chapters in 10 states with 11,000 members across the United States and the south despite being watched by the FBI. They laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement in the south by getting many people incolved in the human rights movement.