When I started to post illustrated histories on Instagram, I used Medium to expand on these historical events and concepts. It was a great way to simplify the presentation of text alongside visuals. This article dealt with COINTELPRO, which was the FBI’s covert intelligence program to discredit, incarcerate, and even murder members of Civil Rights era organizations. Learning this history provided much-needed clarity to an overly romanticized and whitewashed narrative.
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I used collage and illustration to reshape the photos we associate with this time to visually recontextualize this history. Using research from the Zinn Education Project, Democracy Now, and documents from the FBI Archives, I was able to construct an accessible narrative about what tactics COINTELPRO utilized, who it targeted, and why it matters to us today.
I think the balance between visuals and narrative was successful because I wanted the articles to intrigue people to continue researching or begin questioning the impact of state surveillance and violence on organizing groups today. In fact, it was recently reported that the FBI used the same tactics during the George Floyd Uprisings in 2020. If I had the time to recreate this project, I would like to utilize animation skills I developed as the Brand Manager for the San Diego Asian Film Festival. There, I used animation to make our brand come alive on the big screen and I feel those techniques applied to Medium would help draw people further into the story.
