FBI Launches Intensive COINTELPRO Surveillance of SNCC

The FBI's COINTELPRO program placed SNCC under intensive surveillance from 1964, planting informants, intercepting communications, and attempting to discredit leaders including John Lewis and Stokely Carmichael. Internal FBI memos described SNCC as a 'Black nationalist hate group' requiring neutralization. The program disrupted fundraising, leaked damaging information to employers and media, and manufactured intra-organization conflict.