This contains some of the illegal and controversial events in the history of the FBI, or to be more precise J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO.

The FBI

It is not always good to write about the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Even though they talk about us, the FBI doesn't like to be written or talked about. They don't even like the fact that you read or listen to someone talking about them. They are very sensitive people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the investigative branch of the United States Department of Justice, was established by Attorney-General Charles J. Bonaparte (1851-1921), a grand nephew of Napoleon, in 1908, under Theodore Roosevelt (Churchill). When you look back into history on why the US Government setup the FBI compared with some of the dealings the FBI had with Martin Luther King Jr. in addition to the impression left by J. Edgar Hoover's Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), most would question why and how this could have happened.

The original function of the FBI was the investigation of violations of federal law.

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ...

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Rev. Dr. Martin Lu...

Martin Luther King, Jr.

However, it also assists the police and other criminal investigation agencies in the United States. One of its first acts was to enforce a new federal law- the Mann Act. This law made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. One of their first acts was to prosecute the black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, because he was living with a white woman and they actually crossed a state line (Churchill). In 1924 John Edgar Hoover was appointed director of the FBI. Under Hoover's leadership, the FBI also became involved in counter-intelligence activities. This included the collection of information on those with radical political beliefs. J. Edgar Hoover was the brother to Herbert Hoover, who was once hailed as the world's greatest humanitarian because of his relief efforts after the Great War in 1918. As FBI Director, Hoover cleaned up a law enforcement...