FBI's Secret War On Black Leaders: COINTELPRO Exposed From 1956 to 1971, the FBI ran a covert program called COINTELPRO—Counter Intelligence Program—specifically designed to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" Black leaders and civil rights organizations. According to declassified FBI documents, Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered agents to prevent "the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant Black nationalist movement." Targets included Martin Luth