The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was a Black nationalist organization that grew out of internal dissatisfaction with the direction of the Black Panther Party and frustration with the US government’s actions in suppressing that organization. Active from 1970 to 1981, the BLA believed going “underground” was the only way for their movement to survive. Their goal was to defend Black people and the movement for Black liberation against what they saw as an occupying army of police and government agents.

BLA members were blamed for numerous acts of violence, including police killings, kidnappings, and bank robberies, though members of the movement have claimed that many of these charges were false. Between 1971 and 1973, the US government blamed the BLA for the deaths of 20 police officers. In that same period, roughly 1,000 Black people were killed by police (“Repression Breeds Resistance: The Black Liberation Army and the Radical Legacy of the Black Panther Party.” Akinyele Omowale Umoja).

The FBI’s Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) began in 1956 under then-director J. Edgar Hoover. Its initial aim was to combat communism within the United States, but it quickly expanded to focus heavily on the activities of Black-led civil rights organizations, as Hoover claimed that communist agents had infiltrated these organizations.