Alongside its war on drugs, the Nixon administration was engaged in an all-out offensive on Black political leadership. The FBI had been surveilling, threatening, and attempting to discredit Black leaders since as early as 1956 as part of its Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO). The FBI sank to new lows under Nixon, however, with its efforts to destroy the Black Panther Party and, according to a bureau memo, “prevent the rise of a Black ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant Black nationalist movement.”
