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51 years ago, Black Panther leader and revolutionary Fred Hampton was assassinated by Chicago police. He was 21 years old.
"If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. Let me say peace to you, if you're willing to fight for it."
"If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. Let me say peace to you, if you're willing to fight for it."
Fred was a community builder. He brokered a non-aggression pact between Chicago's most powerful street gangs. He urged them to turn their anger and guns on their common oppressor, capitalism, and not on each other.
Fred created the Rainbow Coalition, a class-conscious and multiracial alliance. Fred emphasized that racial and ethnic conflict between gangs only perpetuates poverty, and multinational unity is the way to achieve everyone's liberation.
The Black Panther Party openly advocated for socialist revolution, and supported the Chinese and Cuban revolutions.
In Chicago, Fred led 5 different breakfast programs for children on the West Side, helped create a free medical center, and initiated a door-to-door program of health services.
On the night of Dec. 4, 1969, Chicago police drugged Chairman Fred and stormed his apartment. Cops executed Fred with 99 bullets as he lay next to his pregnant wife. In this photo, Chicago police gloat over their murder.
This was not an isolated incident: this was U.S. government policy. The white supremacist, class system was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black movement.
The Black Panther Party arose from the struggle of the African American people. They attributed Black oppression to capitalism, and dared to pick up arms against the state. They deeply impacted movements for generations to come.
Fred Hampton knew that it is possible to smash the racial barriers raised by capitalism to divide and conquer the working class. His revolutionary legacy lives on to this day. Long live the memory of Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party!
