He was friends with the most prominent Black activists and thinkers of the time like Harry Belafonte, Lorraine Hansberry, and Nina Simone. Under FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI opened files on some 250 artists, in its efforts to contain the growing Black Liberation movement through its covert Counter Intelligence Program or Cointelpro, that was launched with the aim of infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting the anti-government organizations and activists.