#art/ #history: i'm not generally prone to conspiracy theories, but a lot of preposterous sounding stuff has actually happened & you've got to stay sharp. one of the most egregious perpetrators of government-sanctioned atrocity was j edgar hoover.

his COINTELPRO was responsible for a fucktonne of carnage. the FBI's programme of sabotage was aimed squarely at anyone with 'unamerican' leanings, an assignation so broad that it included anyone suspected of being a communist, feminist or socialist revolutionary.

their lies & propaganda led to jean seberg's suicide & saw the likes of dorothy parker hauled up in front of the HUAC to grass up their mates. assassination was not beyond their remit. the black panther party (supported by jean seberg) had spectacular reach with

their transformative programmes such as school breakfasts & free health clinics. amerikkka couldn't be having these uppity black socialists convincing people of the merits of looking after each other. o, no.

51 years ago today, they took out the chairman, fred hampton. his impassioned speeches about solidarity & revolution had to be silenced. in the early hours of the 4th of december (1969), they shot him in his bed.

fredrick allen hampton was born to working class parents &, whilst he studied pre-law, his nascent activism found an outlet as leader of the NAACP's youth council. it wasn't long before fred began hearing about the black panther party & its maoist approach of black

self-determination combined with economic & class concerns. he joined in 1968 & built strong, class conscious alliances with multiracial radicals such as the young lords & the young patriots. this philosophy led fred to found the rainbow coalition in april, 1969.

a scant eight months later, he was dead.