Fred Hampton
Fred Hampton was a high school student and a promising leader when he joined the
Black Panther Party at the age of 19. His status as a leader grew very quickly.
By the age of 20 he became the leader for the Chicago Chapter of the Black
Panther Party. He was in involved in a lot of activities to improve the black
community in Chicago. He maintained regular speaking engagements and organized
weekly rallies at the Chicago federal building on behalf of the BPP. He
worked with a free People's Clinic, taught political education classes every
morning at 6am, and launched a community control of police project. Hampton was
also instrumental in the BPP's Free
Breakfast Program. Hampton had the charisma to excite crowds during rallies,
he was suppose to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee. His position
would have been Chief of Staff if he did not have an untimely death on the
evening of December 4, 1969.
Events Leading up to The Death of Fred Hampton
The social climate of the late 1960s was definitely NOT on Hampton's side.
The government was not supportive of any radical political organization, and in
fact turned out to be downright suspicious at any attempt to challenge or change
the status-quo. Discriminating against the black community was the norm. When
word of a "Days of Rage" rally came to the government's attention, it
was known that some members of the BPP supported this "attack on the
pig power structure." Allegedly, Fred Hampton and the majority of the
Chicago Panthers did not support this rally, but to the FBI they were guilty by
association. This information, combined with the general suspicion the
government had of the BPP, and Fred's powerful speaking and organizing
skills, made Fred Hampton a wanted man. The Federal Bureau of Investigation saw
Fred Hampton as a threat to society that needed to be eliminated. They conspired
with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and William O'Neal to spy on Fred to
give them information about his daily itinerary in order to have O'Neal's felony
charges dropped. His job was to serve as a bodyguard of Fred and director of the
Chapter's security. He was suppose to notify the FBI of the Panther's apartment
floor plan and how many residents lived in the apartment. When the FBI got its
information a raid was authorized by the state attorney Hanrahan. FBI special
agents sent a memo to J. Edgar Hoover stating that "a positive course of
action (was) being effected under the counterintelligence program."
That Unforgettable Morning
That evening Fred Hampton and several Party members including William O'Neal
came home to the BPP Headquarters after a political education class.
O'Neal volunteered to make the group dinner. He slipped a large dose of
secobarbital in Fred's kool-aid and left the apartment around 1:30am, a little
while later, Fred fell asleep. Around 4:30am on December 4, 1969 the heavily
armed Chicago Police attacked the Panthers' apartment. They entered the
apartment by kicking the front door down and then shooting Mark Clark pointblank
in the chest. Clark was sleeping in the living room with a shotgun in his hand.
His reflexes responded by firing one shot at the police before he died. That
bullet was then discovered to be the only shot fired at the police by the
Panthers. Their automatic gunfire entered through the walls of Fred and his
pregnant girlfriend's room. Fred was shot in the shoulder. Then two officers
entered the bedroom and shot Fred at pointblank in his head to make sure that he
was dead, and no longer a so-called menace to society. It has been said that one
officer stated, "he's good and dead now." The officers then dragged
Fred's body out of his bedroom and again open fired on the members in the
apartment. The Panthers were then beaten and dragged across the street where
they were arrested on charges of attempted murder of the police and aggravated
assault. The incident also wounded four other Panther members. For more
information look at our page about
COINTELPRO and Government Oppression of the BPP.
The Big Conspiracy
Immediately after the incident FBI, CPD, and state attorney Hanrahan started
their cover-up. They showed false re-enactments on TV, fabricated photographic
evidence, and went as far as making a fake investigation. Hanrahan had the
audacity of saying, "We wholeheartedly commend the police officers bravery,
their remarkable restraint and discipline in the face of this vicious Black
Panther attack, and we expect every decent citizen of our community to do
likewise." The members of the Black Panther Party did not take this
incident lightly. They immediately opened up the apartment to the public to show
the brutality of the police. A later investigation found that no more than four
bullets left the Panther's apartment while approximately two hundred entered the
apartment. As explained by this
resource, there are many inconsistencies in the accounts of what really
happened when Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered. Information about the
civil trial that the BPP filed against the government can be found here
also. The civil trial was the longest civil lawsuit in the history of the United
States of America according to the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM).
Despite a ridiculously long trial, not one officer spent a day in jail. Fred
Hampton's murder has never been vindicated, other than through speaking
engagements, accusations of government wrong-doing on the web, and literature
published on the subject. The facts presented by this case seem so crystal clear
in retrospect that it is difficult to see how a jury could acquit the
perpetrators of such blatant violence. One would hope that the passing of time
and increased social awareness has changed behavior in this country enough to
prevent something like this from happening again. Sadly, accusations of
conspiracies past and present seem to surface daily. These violations of Civil
Rights endanger the freedom of all Americans and the integrity of the structures
that govern us. Surpressing those who express controversial ideas are
surpressing the voices of justice. Motivated by fear, oppressing these voices
oppresses the voices of all Americans.
Fred Hampton's Legacy Lives on
His legacy is still alive in the members of the Black Panther Party.
They are following the statement that Fred once said, "You can kill a
revolutionary, but you can't kill a revolution!"
“The state has not forgotten, as
we see specifically from the infamous Gangsta Daley machine in Chicago, Ill.,
that played a role in targeting Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. to the same machine
targeting Lil’ Chairman Fred, as can be seen with photographs of Lil’
Chairman Fred as well as Chairman Fred Sr. being continuously placed in all of
the gun towers of Menard Concentration Camp, as well as the state’s annual
shooting up the tombstone (of) Chairman Fred Hampton Sr.”
- Young Chairman Fred Hampton Jr
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