[41], In 1990, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution, introduced by then-Alderman Madeline Haithcock, commemorating December 4, 2004, as "Fred Hampton Day in Chicago". More than a decade after the case had been filed, the suit was finally settled for $1.85 Million. These initially included preparations for a bombing of a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in what Brian Flanagan said had been intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory".[71]. It also launched a disinformation program to forestall formation of the Rainbow Coalition, but the BPP did make an alliance with the Young Patriots and Young Lords. He was soon to take the position of Chief of Staff and major spokesman. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.[12][31][32]. [3], Released on May 15, 1970, the reports of a federal grand jury criticized the actions of the police, the surviving Black Panthers, and the Chicago news media. He seems to have thought about himself as a law enforcement person.”, The little-known truth about Black Panther activist Fred Hampton, © 2020 Grunge.com. [33] Then, the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. In the early 1990s, Deborah Johnson was interviewed about the raid by Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, former president and co-founder of the Young Lords Organization. In just 21 years, Fred Hampton had accomplished so much for the people and left a lasting legacy that the FBI failed to extinguish with his murder. The new design was created by the same group behind the original mural of the civil rights icon. Bethel Cemetery, Haynesville, Louisiana, U.S. Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with his fiancée, Deborah Johnson, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture. Police routinely surveilled and followed him even prior to his involvement with the Black Panther Party, and he was acutely aware that his life could be cut short at any moment. The survivors were reported to have refused to testify during the inquest because they faced criminal charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault during the raid. He planned to become more familiar with the legal system to use it as a defense against police. Bernard Carey, a Republican, defeated him in the next election, in part because of the support of outraged black voters. Chicago's chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police opposed this effort. Had the Chicago Police not killed Fred Hampton, he would have been named chief of staff of the Black Panther Party's central committee, making him a key spokesman for the group. Much of the first half of "A Nation of Law? [1] He came to prominence in Chicago as chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and deputy chairman of the national BPP. [40][41], On December 11 and 12, the two competing daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, published vivid accounts of the events, but drew different conclusions. Born on August 30, 1948, and raised in Maywood, a small mostly Black working-class suburb of Chicago, Hampton was a brilliant scholar and athlete with aspirations of one day playing for the New York Yankees. It is directed and produced by Shaka King, from a screenplay by King and Will Berson, and a story by King, Berson, and Kenny and Keith Lucas. In a time when Black death is in almost every headline – from COVID-19 to police shootings, to the recent revelation that Chadwick Boseman acted in and produced films that uplifted the Black community all while silently battling terminal colon cancer – we are all coming to terms with our own sense of mortality and what it means to leave a legacy. "The Black Panthers and the Assassination of Fred Hampton", "The Last Hours of William O'Neal (He was the informant who gave the FBI the floor plan of Fred Hampton's apartment. But when police were called to quell the peaceful demonstrations, Hampton and 17 other young people were brutally beaten and charged with mob action and disorderly conduct. Following FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s orders, O’Neal undid much of Hampton’s work to foster peace in the community, leading community members to lose confidence in the BPP. Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy. [27] Hanrahan had recently been strongly criticized by Hampton, who said that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth". [citation needed]. Investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement in the United States. On the morning of December 12, after the Chicago Tribune article had appeared with the Hanrahan-supplied photos, Challem contacted a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times, showed him his own photographs, and encouraged the other reporter to visit the apartment. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues and friends on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and the attempted murder of the officers. Hoover believed the Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and similar radical coalitions Hampton forged in Chicago were a stepping stone to the rise of a revolution that could threaten the U.S. government and society. As documented by PBS, Hampton also was the first to propose the idea of the Rainbow Coalition, which Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama would co-opt as Rainbow/Push. As the world mourns the tragic passing of legendary actor Chadwick Boseman, known for his stirring depictions of iconic Black figures such as Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and the fictional MCU superhero Black Panther, we celebrate the birth of another revolutionary icon and real life Black Panther, Fred Hampton. Interview by Jose "Cha-Cha" Jimenez, c. 1990, File Folder 10, Box 4, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, "Nothing but a Northern Lynching: The Death of Fred Hampton Revisited", "Murder or 'Justifiable Homicide'? Early in the morning of December 4, 1969, under the orders of State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan, and with the help of FBI informant and Panther security guard William O’Neal, Chicago police brutally assassinated 21-year-old Hampton as he lay asleep in his bed next to his pregnant fiancé. When Bob Brown left the Party with Stokely Carmichael, in the FBI-fomented SNCC/Panther split, Hampton assumed chairmanship of the Illinois state BPP. While there, he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the Party's Central Committee. The article included photographs, supplied by Hanrahan's office, that depicted bullet holes in a thin white curtain and door jamb as evidence that the Panthers fired multiple bullets at the police. We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. Hampton led a march to the Maywood police station to protest and demand Moore’s release. [11][12] In 1968, he was on the verge of creating a merger between the BPP and a southside street gang with thousands of members, which would have doubled the size of the national BPP. An augmented, 14-man team of the SAO (Special Prosecutions Unit) was organized for a pre-dawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons. They adopted fake identities and decided to pursue covert activities only. [62] In his 2016 book Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934–1970, Newton writes that Hampton "was murdered in his sleep by Chicago police with FBI collusion. The passing of 1969 saw growing tensions between the Black Panthers and the Chicago Police, so on November 19, 1969, Mitchell and O'Neal met and constructed a floor plan of Hampton's apartment.