Editing Federal Bureau of Investigation (section)

==== Civil rights movement ====
During the 1950s and 1960s, FBI officials became increasingly concerned about the influence of civil rights leaders, whom they believed either had communist ties or were unduly influenced by communists or "[[fellow traveler]]s". In 1956, for example, Hoover sent an open letter denouncing Dr. [[T. R. M. Howard]], a civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in Mississippi who had criticized FBI inaction in solving recent murders of [[George W. Lee]], [[Emmett Till]], and other blacks in the South.<ref>David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, ''Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power'' (Urbana: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2009), 148, 154–59.</ref> The FBI carried out controversial [[surveillance|domestic surveillance]] in an operation it called the [[COINTELPRO]], from "COunter-INTELligence PROgram".<ref name="coinpro">{{cite web |url=http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000118104808/http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html |archive-date=January 18, 2000 |title=A Short History of FBI COINTELPRO |publisher=Monitor.net |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Cassidy |first=Mike M. |date=May 26, 1999}}</ref> It was to investigate and disrupt the activities of dissident political organizations within the United States, including both militant and non-violent organizations. Among its targets was the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]], a leading civil rights organization whose clergy leadership included the Rev. Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]].<ref name="latimes">{{cite news |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm |title=A Break-In to End All Break-Ins |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Jalon |first=Allan M. |date=April 8, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620040020/http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm |archive-date=June 20, 2006}}</ref>

[[File:Mlk-uncovered-letter.png|thumb|The "[[FBI–King suicide letter|suicide letter]]",<ref name="suicide letter">{{cite news |last=Gage |first=Beverly |date=November 11, 2014 |title=What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=January 9, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107190622/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html |archive-date=January 7, 2015}}</ref> mailed anonymously to King by the FBI ]]
The FBI frequently investigated King. In the mid-1960s, King began to criticize the Bureau for giving insufficient attention to the use of terrorism by white supremacists. Hoover responded by publicly calling King the most "notorious liar" in the United States.<ref>Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965 (Simon and Schuster, 1999), p. 524–529</ref> In his 1991 memoir, ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' journalist [[Carl Rowan]] asserted that the FBI had sent at least one anonymous letter to King encouraging him to commit suicide.<ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite news |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html |title=Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist? |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=June 6, 2006 |author-link=Cecil Adams |last=Adams |first=Cecil M. |date=May 2, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110718163413/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html |archive-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref> Historian [[Taylor Branch]] documents an anonymous November 1964 "suicide package" sent by the Bureau that combined a letter to the civil rights leader telling him "You are done. There is only one way out for you." with audio recordings of King's sexual indiscretions.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC |title=Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965 (Simon and Schuster, 1999) p. 527-529 |isbn=978-1-4165-5870-5 |last1=Branch |first1=Taylor |date=April 16, 2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>

In March 1971, the residential office of an FBI agent in [[Media, Pennsylvania]], was burgled by a group calling itself the [[Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI]]. Numerous files were taken and distributed to a range of newspapers, including ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]''.<ref name="'70s 2">{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link= David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York, New York |isbn=0-465-04195-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/40 40] |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/40}}</ref> The files detailed the FBI's extensive [[COINTELPRO]] program, which included investigations into lives of ordinary citizens—including a black student group at a Pennsylvania military college and the daughter of Congressman [[Henry S. Reuss]] of [[Wisconsin]].<ref name="'70s 2" /> The country was "jolted" by the revelations, which included assassinations of political activists, and the actions were denounced by members of the Congress, including House Majority Leader [[Hale Boggs]].<ref name="'70s 2" /> The phones of some members of the Congress, including Boggs, had allegedly been tapped.<ref name="'70s 2" />