The Black Man That TERRIFIED The FBI: Fred Hampton

it was the cold dark morning of December 4th 1969 all was qu

it was the cold dark morning of December 4th 1969 all was quiet in the Chicago Apartment of a young Fred Hampton the deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party for self-defense this would all change however in the middle of the night when at 4:30 a.m. police bust down the door charging into the Hampton residence and firing over 90 shots indiscriminately through the walls and hallways dozens of innocent party members had been sleeping in the apartment including aquan Jerry Fred's pregnant fiance Fred a mere 21 years old at the time laid limp in bed having been drugged the night before but the police weren't taking any chances a Chicago cop came in and fired two more rounds straight through the head of Fred then proudly stated he's as good as dead now there was no court case or trial against the inhumane actions of the officers only the cold Taste of so-called American Justice to White America Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party represented a threat to stability and comfort a radical new ideology threatening white power power and authority these scenes of violence and police brutality weren't all that surprising to the black community but what made this event so much more unsettling was the Insidious organization behind it all You' got to keep the White and the black plotting the murder of innocent young black men who fought to free the black community from the chains of Oppression just how deep does the rabbit hole go The Black Panther's rise to power was not one of pure coincidence a quick look at the sociopolitical climate in 1960s America revealed that the chains of Injustice and oppression that had Shackled the black community for decades were still very present despite the dismantlement of many Jim Crow era policies in America black people were still treated by many as lesser citizens in the north much of the black population was concentrated in poor neighborhoods with high unemployment with r RAC IST districting preventing the spread of black people into more affluent neighborhoods what's more many law enforcement divisions were almost entirely white with less than 3% of Oakland police officers being black this drastic racial imbalance led to an environment where many black folks were subject to racial discrimination and Prejudice from predominantly white law enforcement in the 2 years leading up to the Black Panther party's formation two of the Civil Rights movement's most outspoken individuals Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had been brutally murdered in public and while the two men did not always see eye to eye on all subjects one thing was clear they both championed the idea that the black community had a duty to rise against their oppressor and seek Justice for the centuries of wrongdoing committed by the white elite but now those voices had been silenced and a new symbol of black resilience needed to rise from their ashes and so in October of 1966 two college students from Oakland California Bobby seal and huie Newton etched their names in history and created the Black Panther Party for self-defense or Black Panther Party for short black panther party for self-defense so that we can have self-identity and we know there was a problem the Black Panther Party wasn't yet the well-known National Organization it eventually became they had had quite a few challenges and one of their largest was fundraising in order to create a black community capable of fighting back against a corrupt police force something greater than nonviolent protests was needed something with a bit more Force something with a bang Newton and seal who had witnessed the public outcry and unrest that had occurred after the Watts Riots a series of riots motivated by the racist and abusive policies of the LAPD realized that if given we weapons to defend themselves black people could begin to fight back against racist law enforcement and even the clue cluck Clan seal and Newton in an effort to raise money for more Firearms soon began to buy large quantities of Mao zong's Little Red Book and sell them to leftists across California campuses for triple the price this way seal and Newton both spread their Marxist beliefs while fundraising for weapons in the words of seal we sell the books make the money buy the guns and go on the streets with the guns we'll protect a mother protect a brother and protect the community from the racist cops the idea behind arming the black populace was quite simple arm black communities who could Patrol black neighborhoods that were subject to police brutality and police the police in an act known as cop watching however many in the white Community viewed this as an aggressive move by the Panthers and attempted to paint them as a violent criminal organization California governor Ronald Reagan even signed a law Banning the open carry of loaded firearms in a direct attempt to limit the power and influence of the Black Panther Party in response the party brought 26 armed Panthers into the Sacramento Courthouse to protest the bill and make a public statement black people have begged prayed petitioned demon strated and everything else to get the racist power structure of America to write the wrongs which have historically been perpetuated against black people the time has come for black people to arm themselves against this Terror before it is too late in response California law enforcement arrested seal and five others but the Panthers had already got their message out by the time of their indictment news had spread far and wide of the party and their mission and soon Party leaders such as Bobby seal eldrid cleever and huie Newton were being invited to speak everywhere on the Newfound ideas of the Black Panther Party much of the idealistic backdrop behind the party's principles was revolutionary at its core aiming to challenge Decades of Oppression and deliver rightful compensation for the suffering of millions of African-Americans during slavery seal and Newton expressed this in their 10-point program a set of guidelines written to provide party followers with an understanding of the mission behind the Black Panther Party some of the more prominent points included an immediate end to police brutality and the murder of black people and all other people of color completely free health care for all black and oppressed people Full Employment and housing for black communities teaching education that exposes the true nature of decadent White America these principles would help Inspire the creation of the Black Panther party's famous free meal and education programs which saw great success in inner city communities across the country started in January 1969 the free breakfast for children program fed over 20,000 children in 1969 alone and the rampant success of these programs led to over 36 free breakfast programs being run Nationwide during these free breakfasts party members and volunteers would help educate the children on anti- capitalism black pride and the need for self-sufficiency within black communities many of the kids positively affected by the free breakfast program were those who were unable to be helped by the existing Federal lunch program the program mostly run by volunteers help provide food security and impoverished communities while helping shape the Panther's image to one of combating racial Injustice and ghetto marginalization but while the party was spreading his messages of love freedom and food security to the masses there were a select few who had been hiding in the shadows plotting the downfall of the Black Panther Party in fact there was one man that absolutely hated the Panthers and all that they stood for so much so that he created an entire operation designed to systematically dismantle the Panthers and destroy their hopes of creating a United black community but before we continue if you like the content you've seen and would like to see more please leave a like and leave a comment down below sharing your thoughts each one of our voices helps spread awareness of the injustices against the black community that persist to this day as Panther popularity began to rise so too did its opposition government agencies such as the FBI had deemed the Marxist philosophies behind the Panthers to be too much of a threat to American stability and devised an ultimate strategy to destroy the Panthers from the inside named coint Pro black hate this operation sought to neutralize black nationalist hate groups through a series of subversive and downright Sinister measures like assassination and imprisonment wow these are the actions of the government who is supposed to protect us the FBI had sought to deepen divides between X and the Nation of Islam which ultimately led to his death and had blackmailed MLK any Group which sought to promote black suffrage or protest were targeted and Dr King specifically was sent a threatening piece of blackmail from the FBI to try and get him to end his own life in the letter the author calls Dr King a evil abnormal Beast telling him to off himself before your filthy abnormal fraudulent self is Beed to the nation these sort of malicious and racist acts didn't just stop with Dr King though Elmer Pratt a black panther party leader was falsely accused of murder and was imprisoned for 27 years before an FBI agent testified believing Pratt had been framed 27 years can you imagine having your whole life stolen away simply because the government had lied this is one of many examples that display the blatant abuse of power and lengths the FBI went through to subdue and sabotage black people J Edgar Hoover director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time made it his personal priority to dismantle everything the Black Panther Party stood for stating the Black Panther Party without question represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country behind the scenes of coint tell Pro Hoover took an active role in Framing and slam in various black panther organizations in particular he desperately wanted to ruin the free breakfast program the Panthers had been running claiming that the Black Panther party's free breakfast program is the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and Destroy what it stands for soon government authorities began spreading rumors that the Panthers were handing out poison food and FBI agents began to raid breakfast Program locations while while children were eating when a San Diego FBI agent who was sent to report on the Black Panther party's dangerous activities reported that they were just helping out impoverished communities Hoover retorted by implying the agent would be fired if he did not falsify evidence to support the FBI's narrative as you can see Hoover and the FBI had a complete disregard for American democracy and especially when it came to those of color his immense fear of the black po potion was driven not out of legitimate concern of terrorist organizations but out of a Relentless hatred towards minority groups who represented a threat to White America's segregationist Society Hoover's goal with coel Pro was to completely dismantle the Black Power movement in order to prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify the black nationalist movement as it turns out there was one man in particular who was making quite the stir in the black community using his career and charm to Rally all those oppressed by the government to fervor his name Fred Hampton from a young age Fred Hampton had already begun work to revolutionize the working and living conditions for the black community in high school Fred LED walkouts protesting black students exclusion from the competition for homecoming queen and calling on education officials to hire more black teachers and administrators in 1966 shortly after Fred turned 18 Fred became an active participant in the naacp's youth Council helping organize protests and leading over 500 youth members in an attempt to improve the educational resources for Chicago's impoverished black community from a young age Fred had sought to overthrow the racial conditioning and stigma that had long perpetrated Black Culture in the North many black individuals at the time sought to distance themselves from their black Heritage in an attempt to whitewash themselves and assimilate into white Society but Fred was having none of it stating 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 we say you don't fight racism with racism we're going to fight racism with solidarity we say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism you fight capitalism with socialism his heart and soul had always been focused on organizing the masses to take action against government Injustice even across racial divides in 1969 Hampton forged a coalition with the young Lords a predominantly Latino minority group who had campaigned for self-determination of Puerto Ricans and colonized third world people soon after organizations such as the American Indian movement as well as the young Patriots organization joined in Union with the black panthers in what became known as the Rainbow Coalition Hampton who sought to forge an anti-racist multi-racial alliance was the poster child for all who had felt wronged and discarded by America the FBI seeing this Unity as a threat to their power began to follow Fred's every move and had tapped several of his phone lines in an attempt to silence Fred and the Panthers the FBI orchestrated his arrest in 1968 where Fred was arrested on trumped up charges from a year earlier in 1967 what were those charges being accused of assaulting an ice cream truck driver and stealing $71 of ice cream seriously in addition to falsely incriminating Hampton the FBI had begun to infiltrate the Black Panther Party with their own informants including the one man who would ultimately be the demise of Fred Hampton William O'Neal you see what's interesting about William O'Neal was that despite being a black man present in Chicago during a time of great political change and Revolution O'Neal was apathetic towards it all in his own words I grew up in a middle class neighborhood and I had very little idea of the politics I was apolitical I knew nothing of the Black Panther Party in in fact the day I joined I was pretty sure it was just another gang well as he quickly found out the Panthers were much more than just any other gang popularized in the movie Judas and the black Messiah O'Neal's involvement in the downfall of the panther party has largely painted him as a villain in the eyes of history and within the black community after having his role in the murder revealed in 1973 O'Neal entered Witness prote from the FBI in order to safeguard him from those angry at his betrayal eventually even he himself could not deal with the guilt for the first and only time ever O'Neal went on air in 1990 to speak about his role in the murder and betrayal of Fred Hampton take a look at the interview the look on his face says it all she was a top man in in the state of uh Illinois at that time what you think about the Panthers at that time it was William who had provided the FBI with a detailed layout of the Black Panther apartment and it was William who had drugged Fred that night so he would be incapacitated and unable to fight back and so when the Chicago Police Department had busted down the door they knew exactly where to go official reports of that night state that the Panthers had participated in a shootout with police officers and that the murder of Fred Hampton wasn't premeditated but detailed accounts from that night paint a different different story according to a ballistics report conducted in the days following the murder police entering the apartment had fired over 99 shots with only one shot of gunfire returned by the Panthers police officers initially denied entering into Hampton's bedroom and murdering him but later evidence was uncovered that Officer James gloves Davis had fired a bullet from his carbine straight into the chest of Fred Hampton contradicting his earlier testimony as this news of Fred's death was relayed over the police radio the downtown dispatcher reported hearing cheers from police cars scattered over the city a faceless policeman said Into His Radio that's when to get them when they're in their beds the lies of the FBI were further exposed in the aftermath of the killings when it was revealed that the FBI had colluded with the Cook County State Attorney and had continuously withheld critical government documentation from the legal proceedings that followed regardless the damage had already been done Fred Hampton once the charismatic and Charming leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party had been silenced by government forces along with Fred Hampton many of the other leaders of the Black Panthers had either been arrested fled the country due to false allegations or been silenced by the FBI through various means young blacks quickly demonstrated that they were not willing to put themselves on the line for Panther ideals when the price was their lives and so the Panther Movement died and was buried What followed the dissolution of the Black Panthers was nothing short of tragedy but perhaps what is most tragic of all is that the ideals of the panther party that once held so much vibrancy such power faded away underneath the boot of American capitalism Hoover and the FBI had won their battle and unfortunately the next decades would have the American government committing more egregious crimes against its own people recently however movies such as Judas and the Messiah have shed light on some of the gross injustices committed against Fred and the Black Panther Party in this day and age it is our responsibility to educate both white and black folks about our past so we can raise awareness about the importance of a United Black Culture thanks for watching black stories Untold and if you like today's video make sure to subscribe and let us know what you would like to see us cover next

This chapter of the story continues from the previous sectio

This chapter of the story continues from the previous section.

This chapter of the story continues from the previous sectio

This chapter of the story continues from the previous section.

This chapter of the story continues from the previous sectio

This chapter of the story continues from the previous section.

This chapter of the story continues from the previous sectio

This chapter of the story continues from the previous section.