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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  • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Hello choir, I’d like to do some preaching

    The way we talk about Agent Orange in the US is completely fucked and ass backwards. The only reason we talk about it and think it was bad is because it was contaminated and got American soldiers sick. We used several different herbicides, the rest of them didn’t have that problem. Hot take, that was the best thing about Agent Orange!

    The spraying of herbicides by the US military in Indochina is a historic evil. Why the fuck would I feel bad for the people doing the spraying getting sick? I wouldn’t feel bad for Nazis if they got sick from Zyklon B, why would I feel bad for American troops getting sick from Agent Orange. Unlimited cancer on the genocidiers.

    Obviously the fact that the contaminants also harmed the victims is very bad, but I’m including that with the direct effects of the herbicides and also the bombs in “Not the problems Americans have with the Vietnam war”

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Eternally worth remembering that 70-80% of us personnel in vietnam were volunteers.