Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, was born on August 30, 1948 and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood, Illinois. In high school he excelled in academics and athletics. After Hampton graduated from high school, he enrolled in a pre-law program at Triton Junior College in River Grove, Illinois. Hampton also became involved in the civil rights movement, joining his local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His dynamic leadership and organizational skills in the branch enabled him to rise to the position of Youth Council President. Hampton mobilized a racially integrated group of five hundred young people who successfully lobbied city officials to create better academic services and recreational facilities for African American children.

In 1968, Hampton joined the Black Panther Party (BPP), headquartered in Oakland, California. Using his NAACP experience, he soon headed the Chicago chapter. During his brief BPP tenure, Hampton formed a “Rainbow Coalition” which included Students for a Democratic Society, the Blackstone Rangers, a street gang and the National Young Lords, a Puerto Rican organization. Hampton was also successful in negotiating a gang truce on local television.

In an effort to neutralize the Chicago BPP, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Chicago Police Department placed the chapter under heavy surveillance and conducted several harassment campaigns. In 1969, several BPP members and police officers were either injured or killed in shootouts, and over one hundred local members of the BPP were arrested.

During an early morning police raid of the BPP headquarters at 2337 W. Monroe Street on December 4, 1969, twelve officers opened fire, killing the 21-year-old Hampton and Peoria, Illinois Panther leader Mark Clark. Police also seriously wounded four other Panther members. Many in the Chicago African American community were outraged over the raid and what they saw as the unnecessary deaths of Hampton and Clark. Over 5,000 people attended Hampton’s funeral where Reverends Ralph Abernathy and Jesse Jackson of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference eulogized the slain activist. Years later, law enforcement officials admitted wrongdoing in the killing of Hampton and Clark. In 1990, and later in 2004, the Chicago City Council passed resolutions commemorating December 4 as Fred Hampton Day.

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  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Someone one of our wait staff caught that the table closest to the window were all big trek fans, 3 generations and the dude named Geordie has just had a kid they named Annika. So she pointed me out and mentioned I'm a huge trekkie, some talked a bit and I mentioned I'm even wearing star trek socks and god bless this middle aged lady, she asked if she could see them, so I left the kitchen, went out to the restaurant and showed a customer my socks. It was a pretty solid day otherwise, but that really brought it over the top

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        It was awesome. I gave em a Live Long and Prosper and a Vulcan hand thing. The grandpa's favorite was voyager and least favorite was ds9, i knew we were good so I got to jokingly say 'well there's the door cause ds9 is my favorite and I've got issues with voyager.' I explained what I liked about ds9 and the shortcomings of voyager and he gave his tske and admitted he hadn't watched ds9.since it aired and it may go down better with streaming, it was their first time, they loved the food said they'd be back and we'll talk more trek later. These people are gonna be getting hooked up so fucking much.

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
            ·
            2 months ago

            I was worried about today. Last week the chef came back from vacation and was WAY too enthusiastic after a week off, bumped me out of my normal position calling orders and doing expos (which is normally the chef's job but I've been there for 3 years and it's been at least 2 since the window has been MY spot and when service is going I run that show because both front and back of house have been pretty verbal about preferring me there even with some staff flowing in and out, I'm really good at that spot and tbh it helps having someone that can't fire you handling that stuff cause people aren't afraid to tell me when my calls are maybe off base, we have a good system) and was demanding as hell, did about 1/3rd of the work I do cause I'm calling g and send and plating and cutting and also handling cold apps and salads and keeling an eye on the pizza oven, I also verbalize orders and tell pastas and stuff when to start up so things come up proper and ykmow do.the job, he criticized people, set up.and entirely different system where he set trays up all over the window, salad line and sometimes encroaching on the pizza line with the expectation that people use the pizza paddles to move them directly from the oven to those trays. The only alley for walking through the kitchen is between the oven and those lines and it's like 3 feet and the paddles are 3.5 feet long and there's a corner to the dish pit on one side of the oven and a corner to the pasta line and fridge. Someone is gonna take a pizza to the torso fresh from the oven and get severely burned doin this. My way is let to let them hover on the edge of the oven until I need them and to pull pizzas to that spot when the last edge of crust is just a bit undercooked so the time spent there finished it off and that buys me time or.wjoeber else is on oven usually the dishwasher while I'm busy says it's getting filled and I tell him which pizzas I need and he grabs some pans and clears the space, it keeps a good flow. In the window the CHEF didn't even verbally call orders and basically ordered everyone around while he stood there. He TOLD not asked me fill him a takeout container of pi,za sauce, the containers and sauce were within his reach and I was watching the fryer cause we had a double order of riceballs but 2 out of six were thawed and the rest were cooked from frozen so I dipped the frozen first but cause he still.hadnt replaced.the deep fryer we were using a pot of oil instead of a fryer with a basket I had to keep the frozen ones off the bottom of the pot cause they'd burn on the outside before they thawed inside otherwise and he dared to give me the cliche 'if you're looking you're not cookin" that fucker should know if I'm babying something it's for a reason and he wasn't doing shit and filling takeout container with sauce takes 20 seconds. I had to then ignore.my delicate procedure and fill.his majesty's takeout cup and after the smoke cleared I explained why he.was an asshole, he felt bad and i guess when I went for a smoke.the rest of the kitchen also brought up how his totally changing the system and not verbalizing anything to anyone made the night hard and this week he stuck to the background and I.got.my place back and a super busy night went like a breeze. He's a great chef in the food making department but it's best he leave service to me. So the fact that he backed off tonight and then it was twice as busy and half as hard as last week already had me feeling good.