Course Topic Selection

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Advanced Research Methods

Week 1

Discussion 3

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I began my search using the Bing search engine.  I also used the Wikipedia site to help me identify search phrases. Because Wikipedia is edited by it's userbase, I have been told that it is not acceptable to use as an academic source. However, it can be read to present a basic description of the subject and of related areas. In addition, most Wiki pages have references that can be studied. Finally, regarding Wiki, there are “Talk” or “Discussion” pages in which editors of the page debate why items should be included on the page or not, and this can also provide legitimate references for study.

In my Bing search, I found several results, but I sift through these looking for academic or think-tank articles or research papers. Occasionally a news magazine will have a relevant article (although I have not found one on this subject as of yet). Once I have found several references, I will then use a search on the cites they present, and this can lead to a chain of sources. I found several web sites which discussed COINTELPRO, and I identified their biases and used the sites to locate additional sources.

The problems I faced have been primarily issues of bias. Most discussion of the COINTELPRO program is based on the fact that it was somehow “immoral” to investigate and harass violent groups that had the goal of breaking American law; in addition, the vast majority of this discussion has been conducted by leftists that focused on leftist groups as “victims” of this program, and ignored completely COINTELPRO operations against the Klan. The majority of the remainder often brushed off efforts against the Klan as an FBI front for public relations...in a secret program. I have been able to filter though the pags to find useful information, however. I found one academic paper which had good information, but based a lot of argumention on points raised by Ward Churchill, whom I consider to be a loon, so I was able to identify other sources, even if I don't use that paper as a source itself.

At the present time, I have the following sources:

Cunningham, D. (2003, Fall). Understanding state responses to Left- versus Right-Wing threats: The FBI’s Repression of the New Left and the Ku Klux Klan. Social Science History, 27:3,327–70. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from http://www.somuchthis.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/stateRepressionLvR.pdf

Drabble, J. (2007, Fall). “From white supremacy to white rower: The FBI’s COINTELPRO-WHITE HATE Operation and the “Nazification” of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s,” American Studies, 48:3: 49-74. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/article/viewFile/3133/3913

FBI.gov. (2010, February). The FBI versus the Klan. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/february/the-fbi-versus-the-klan-part-1

Mississippi Historical Review. (2007). The FBI, COINTELPRO-WHITE HATE and the decline of Ku Klux Klan organizations in Mississippi, 1964-1971. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=11464

Schrader, S. (2013, Janruary 31). "Anti-Klan (Part 1)": The FBI, the police, and the KKK. Stuart Schrader. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from http://stuartschrader.com/blog/anti-klan-part-1-fbi-police-and-kkk

Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. (1976, April 23). COINTELPRO: The FBI'S covert action programs against American citizens
United States Senate. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from http://www.randomcollection.info/cointeldocs/churchfinalreportIIIa.htm