CHICAGO
'Fred Hampton Day' declared
Thirty-five years ago, on Dec. 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, deputy
chair of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, was
brutally assassinated by members of the Chicago Police
Department as he lay sleeping. Hampton was only 21 years
old.
Mark Clark, a member of the Black Panther Party's Peoria,
Ill., chapter, was also killed. Other Panther members were
injured during these shootings, including Hampton's companion,
Akua Njeri, who was nine months pregnant.
These cowardly killings were coordinated in conjunction with
the FBI's repressive Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro),
which targeted leaders of national liberation movements like
the Panthers inside the United States. Not one Chicago police
officer was ever prosecuted for this terrible crime.
Today Hampton's son, Fred Hampton Jr., champions the release
of U.S. political prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal. Hampton is
himself a former political prisoner.
The Chicago City Council unanimously approved a resolution
introduced by former Alderwoman Marlene C. Carter commemorating
Dec. 4, 2004, as "Fred Hampton Day in Chicago."
The resolution reads in part: "Fred Hampton, who was only 21
years old, made his mark in Chicago history not so much by his
death as by the heroic efforts of his life and by his goals of
empowering the most oppressed sector of Chicago's Black
community, bringing people into political life through
participation in their own freedom fighting organization."
Hampton was one of the most dynamic, inspiring freedom
fighters of any generation. One of his most notable quotes was,
"You can kill a revolutionary but you can never kill the
revolution."
--Monica Moorehead
Reprinted from the Dec. 16, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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