The FBI established this classification in January 1964 to provide policy and control to the recruitment, development, use, and payment of informants in racial groups, hate organizations, extremist organizations, and groups in racial communities. Informants operated in the following groups: Klu Klux Klan, Minutemen, anti-Castro groups, American Nazi Party, National States Rights Party, Students for a Democratic Society, Nation of Islam, Black Panther Party, Socialist Workers Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Republic of New Africa, Black Liberation Alliance, and Weathermen. Cases on Martin Luther King, Gary Rowe, and the COINTELPRO programs directed at the KKK and Black Panthers have control files in this classification. This is the only informant classification which used the "listening post" concept in which informants were paid for reports of acontinued calm, no change, nothing to report, and the like. Such information was viewed as positive pieces of information. Established in response to the increased racial tensions and anti-war activities in the 1960's that were thought to be revolutionary, or had revolutionary potential, the stated FBI concern was to guarantee civil rights and equality under the law. FBI Headquarters attempted to keep tight control on the development, use, and payment on racial/extremist informants. The informants were recruited according to guidelines used for security informants. In 1964 there were 20 informants and 5700 potential informants in this program. Activities through the 70's changed the character of the files in the classification, and the informants used. In 1968 the Black Panther Party became a part of this program and was particularly important for Hoover. Later informants were developed in the American Indian Movement. Files stopped being opened in this classification in 1976, though there are documents dated as late as 1979. The classification is obsolete.
