Fred Hampton's revolutionary life and legacy
"Socialism is the people. If you're afraid of socialism, you're afraid of yourself."
From Progressive International:
On this day in 1969, Fred Hampton, a Marxist-Leninist and leading figure in the Black Panther Party, was assassinated by Chicago Police during a raid coordinated by the FBI. He was 21. His comrade Mark Clark was killed minutes earlier.
Hampton’s political life began at school. He led walkouts protesting segregation and exclusion, demanding the employment of more black staff. Having read the works of revolutionaries like Mao and Guevara, Hampton was attracted by the Black Panther Party and its attempt to integrate the fight for black liberation with the class struggle.
Hampton moved to Chicago, where he joined the Black Panthers and founded the ‘Rainbow Coalition.’ This alliance brought together the city’s working class—black, white and Latino—to build solidarity in one of the US’s most segregated cities. Together, the groups organized to fight police brutality and poverty.
They built and operated health clinics, organized concerts, offered legal advice to those facing eviction, hosted free breakfasts and arranged food drives for the homeless. At the same time, the coalition built class consciousness though a program of political education events. It was after one of these events that Hampton was murdered. The FBI orchestrated Hampton’s death as part of its Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO.
Originally a McCarthyite operation designed to crush revolutionary sentiments in the US, by 1969 COINTELPRO aimed to “disrupt, misdirect, and otherwise neutralize” the black power movement.
FBI Chief Edgar Hoover hoped COINTELPRO would halt the “rise of a messiah” who could lead radical liberation politics across the country. To this end, the FBI installed an informant in the Panthers’ Chicago operation, who provided the police with a detailed map of Hampton’s apartment.
At 4:30 AM, while Hampton slept by his pregnant fiancee, fourteen plainclothes police officers broke down the door of his home. Armed with pistols, a shotgun and a machine gun, the police fired more than 90 rounds. The Panthers shot once—Mark Clark’s gun discharged into the ceiling as he was shot. Hampton was gunned down in his bed as he slept.
“Is he still alive?” asked one officer after two shots were fired.
“He’s good and dead now,” the other replied.
Following the raid, Edward Hanrahan, the Cook County state attorney who had given the police their orders, held a press conference claiming his officers were the victims of a surprise Black Panther attack.
“The immediate, violent, criminal reaction of the occupants in shooting at announced police officers emphasizes the extreme viciousness of the Black Panther Party,” said Hanrahan.
A few days later, Edgar Hoover wrote to the FBI agent who had coordinated the assassination celebrating his “exemplary efforts.”
“I am certainly pleased to commend you and to advise you that I have approved an incentive award in the amount of $200 for your outstanding services in a matter of considerable interest to the FBI in the racial field,” wrote Hoover.
Today, we celebrate Fred Hampton’s revolutionary life and legacy.
Join us.
“We don’t think you fight fire with fire best; we think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.”
-Fred Hampton, Olivet Church, 1969
