revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library
revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library
revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library
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194<br />
Churches that permitted the Panthers to use their facilities in<br />
the free breakfast prog<strong>ram</strong> were also targeted . When the FBI<br />
San Diego office discovered that a Catholic Priest, Father Frank<br />
Curran, was permitting his church in San Diego to be used as a<br />
serving place for the BPP Breakfast Prog<strong>ram</strong>, it sent an anonymous<br />
letter to the Bishop of the San Diego Diocese informing<br />
him of the Priest's activities . In August, 1969, the San Diego<br />
Field Office requested permission from headquarters to place<br />
three telephone calls protesting Father Curran's support of the<br />
BPP prog<strong>ram</strong> to the Auxiliary Bishop of the San Diego Diocese . 40<br />
The FBI also sent anonymous mailings to public officials and people<br />
who might sway public opinion against the BPP . The FBI destroyed community<br />
support for individual<br />
BPP members by spreading rumors that they were immoral<br />
. The San Diego Field Office reported it had been successful in this<br />
aspect of COINTELPRO by anonymously informing the parents of a teenage<br />
girl that she was pregnant by a local BPP leader . The parents of the girl<br />
forced her to resign from the BPP and return home to live . As a result, it<br />
became general knowledge throughout the Black community that the BPP leader<br />
was responsible for the difficulty experienced by the girl .<br />
The field office also considered the operation successful because<br />
the mother of another girl questioned the activities of her own<br />
daughter after talking with the parent the agents had anonymously<br />
contacted . She learned that her daughter, a BPP member, was also<br />
pregnant, and had her committed to a reformatory as a wayward<br />
juvenile . 41<br />
The FBI also, on several occasions, developed schemes to create friction<br />
between the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam . The FBI war<br />
against the Black Liberation Movement was very extensive . In a July 10,<br />
1968, FBI memorandum, it was suggested that consideration be given to conveying<br />
the impression that Stokely Carmichael was a CIA agent . The report<br />
suggested that the FBI inform a certain percentage of criminal and racial<br />
40 1bid . . p . 210<br />
4l ibid ., p . 213 .