AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE F.B.I.
THE F.B.I.'S EFFECT ON AFRICAN AMERICANS
The FBI has had a complex relationship with African Americans throughout its history. The FBI’s surveillance of African Americans and Black rights organizations grew out of the bureau’s larger espionage operation known as COINTELPRO, the now infamous program launched in 1956 to snuff out communism in the United States.
According to CNN, the percentage of Black or African American employees at the FBI has dropped from 12% in 2016 to 10.7% in 2021.
However, minority representation overall at the FBI has slightly improved in the past five years, from about 24.4% in 2016 to approximately 25.8% in 2021 2. The FBI has launched a new diversity initiative aimed at reaching out to historically Black colleges and universities to try to recruit more African Americans to be special agents. Source