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A letter issued on this day in 1967 by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) informed the world that the U.S. Government had carried out an operation called COINTELPRO, the counterintelligence program designed to infiltrate and ‘neutralize’ any Black organizations it found threatening. Among some of the organizations were the Black Panther Party, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

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Women’s Tennis champion Althea Gibson is born on this day in 1927 in South Carolina.

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The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters on this day in 1925 organized a mass meeting in New York City. The group was one of the most successful Black labor unions heavily involved in the struggle against Jim Crow and for Civil Rights.