Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI breaks into Media, Pennsylvania office and exposes COINTELPRO surveillance of civil rights organizations

A group calling itself the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI's Media, Pennsylvania field office on March 8, 1971, and removed approximately 1,000 documents. The documents revealed that the FBI's COINTELPRO program had used paid informants to infiltrate and disrupt civil rights organizations, antiwar groups, and the NAACP. The disclosure prompted congressional investigations and the Church Committee hearings that ultimately produced limits on domestic intelligence operations.