The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther Jeffrey Haas (Lawrence Hill)

The Hampton and Clark families and the survivors of the raid are being honored at an event on November 5 at the law school at Northwestern University, where Fred spoke to the students and faculty exactly 40 years ago. It includes a reading, a discussion by a panel of scholars and writers moderated by Bernardine Dohrn, and a public reception.

In Chicago Fred Hampton also spoke out against police brutality. As the leader of the NAACP Youth Chapter, he originally marched for raises of police salaries to get more professional police in Maywood. Later he pushed to make the police more accountable and to give Maywood citizens the power to fire brutal cops. . . .

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After the board meeting, Fred was targeted by the Maywood police and arrested on several occasions for technical traffic violations. He eventually stopped driving to avoid the harassment. The local police weren’t the only ones watching Fred Hampton. After his arrest for mob action, he was put on the FBI’s Key Agitator Index, a list of activists that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover ordered agents to monitor closely. . . .

“The pigs say, ‘Well the Breakfast for Children Program is a socialistic program, it’s a communistic program.’ And the women say, ‘I don’t know if I like communism. I don’t know if I like socialism. But I know that the Breakfast for Children Program feeds my kids.’ A lot of people think the Breakfast for Children Program is charity. But what does it do? It takes the people from a stage to another stage. Any program that’s revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change. Honey, if you just keep on changing, before you know it—in fact, you don’t have to know what it is—they’re endorsing it, they’re participating in it, and supporting socialism.”

Panther members in Chicago went door-to-door in many black communities to find out what peoples’ complaints and priorities were and to get signatures on petitions for community control of the police. These neighborhood activities sometimes put them in conflict with Chicago street gangs, who considered many areas their exclusive territories. The gangs were armed and organized. Sometimes they exercised their power to benefit the community. The Black P. Stone Nation, successor to the Blackstone Rangers, carried out a “no-vote” campaign on the south side to take votes away from the Democratic machine in favor of more progressive and community-oriented candidates. In 1969 members of the Black Disciples, the city’s second-largest street gang, made up the majority of demonstrators who picketed and actually halted Chicago construction projects in the Loop until they won positions for African-Americans in the building trades unions, which had been a bastion of discrimination. Fred met and worked out a treaty with Black Disciples leader David Barksdale that allowed the Panthers to organize and recruit in areas controlled by the gang.

Thu 11/5, 5:30-7:30 PM, reception to follow, Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern University School of Law, 375 E. Chicago, registration required, 312-503-0396, free.

Jeffrey Haas

Thu 11/6, 6 PM, 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th, 773-684-1300.

Sat 11/7, 9 AM, Live From the Heartland (WLWU 88.7 FM), Heartland Cafe, 7000 N. Glenwood, 773-465-8005

Sat 11/7, 1 PM, Manning branch library, 6 S. Hoyne, 312-746-6800.

Sun 11/8, 3 PM, Barbara’s Bookstore, 1100 Lake St., Oak Park, 708-848-9140

Mon 11/9, 7 PM, Book Stall at Chestnut Court, 811 Elm, Winnetka, 847-446-8880