FBI headquarters and COINTELPRO revelations

The J. Edgar Hoover Building at the FBI's headquarters housed bureau leadership while the FBI ran COINTELPRO, a counterintelligence program active from the mid-1950s through 1971. Documents and investigations revealed that COINTELPRO targeted civil rights organizations, anti-war activists, and other domestic groups and included covert surveillance and disruption tactics later described as illegal and abusive. Public exposure of these operations led to congressional inquiries and reforms of intelligence oversight.