The history of the Black Panther Party and the Ku Klux Klan tells a complicated story about race, policing and government power in America. The Panthers were founded in 1966 to organize Black communities and monitor police, while the FBI’s COINTELPRO targeted the organization with surveillance, infiltration and disruption. The FBI’s own historical records acknowledge that COINTELPRO was later criticized for violating constitutional rights. And the KKK? It didn’t disappear. Today’s Klan is smaller and fragmented, but Klan organizations remain active. So why was the government so determined to destroy one movement—and what does that history tell us about America? #BlackHistory #BlackPanthers #KKK #COINTELPRO #AmericanHistory @Joy Ann Reid @Don Lemon @Aaron Parnas @briantylercohen @The New York Times @The Boston Globe @Raw Story @The Daily Beast @Reuters @The Washington Post