National-Local Interface of Social Control: The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Winston-Salem Branch of the Black Panther Party

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between national social control goals and goal implementation at the local level. National FBI goals shaped local control efforts through predefined categories of intelligence gathering. Local social control activity accordingly contributed not only to control of local Black Panther Party activity, but also to national social control efforts aimed at dismantling the social movement. Additionally, the manner in which social control efforts at the local level reinforce or challenge the national frame is considered. The official frame of the Black Panther Party as a violent, extremist group and a threat to national security shaped intelligence reports. Reports submitted early in the investigative period reinforced the national frame through repeated reports of isolated violent incidents and through language which cast harmless events in a negative light. Only toward the end of the investigative period did intelligence reports contain material which would challenge the official FBI frame.