The Case of Claude Lightfoot COINTELPRO, Civil Rights, and the Demise of the Communist Party, USA

Alex Cline

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Johnson, Robert

Keywords

COINTELPRO, FBI, Hoover, J. Edgar, Lightfoot, Claude Mack, Civil Rights Movement, Communist Party of the United States, CPUSA

Area of Concentration

History

Abstract

The FBI's controversial Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which lasted from 1956 to 1971, was established to �disrupt, discredit, and neutralize� the Communist Party of the United States and other groups which FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover saw as a threat to national security. When COINTELPRO was revealed to the public during the 1970s, the expansion of that mandate to target peaceful political groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference raised a number of questions about the motivations of the Bureau and its Director. This thesis investigates the nature of the affiliation between the Civil Rights Movement and the CPUSA, especially as constructed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the early 1960s. Drawing on the 1976 Church Committee Report and a collection of secondary literature, the thesis will examine the formation and nature of COINTELPRO. A historical survey of the CPUSA and African-Americans will sort out the myths and realities surrounding the relationship between the CPUSA and the early Civil Rights movement. Finally, the thesis will focus in-depth on the COINTELPRO files of Claude Mack Lightfoot, Chicago-based African-American Communist leader, to investigate the 1960's-era FBI's efforts to equate the Civil Rights movement with the Communist Party as well as the growing divergence between the two movements as the CPUSA's national relevance waned.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS