The Dream Awake

Dec. 6, 2011 at 6:25pm with 169 notes

Reblogged from freedomoverfear-deactivated2011

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THE DAY FRED HAMPTON DIED

Today marks a very special day, a day that changed Chicago, a day that caused devistation in the Black Panther Party along with the black community. Today marks the day that Fred Hampton died.

As a talented man and a great leader, he was a prominent member of the BPP but the FBI, led by Chief J. Edgar Hoover, saw him as a major threat to society. Between 1967 and 1969, the FBI opened a 12 volume, over four thousand pages long file on Fred Hampton. By fall of 1969, J. Edgar Hoover demanded that the COINTELPRO personnel “destroy what the [BPP] stands for” and “eradicate its ‘serve the people’ programs”

In November 1969, while Hampton was away at the National BPP Leadership at UCLA, the FBI and Chicago PD was shown Hampton’s apartment on 2337 West Monroe Street by the FBI’s informant and Hampton’s bodyguard, William O’Neal. During this time, they planned a pre-dawn raid with a warrant for illegal weapons.

On the eve of December 3rd, after returning home from teaching a political education course at a local church, him and several other panthers, including his pregnant girlfriend Deborah Johnson, were met by O’Neal, who cooked a meal for them upon their arrival. O’Neal slipped a powerful sleep agent, secobarbitol, into Hampton’s drink during dinner to sedate him so he would not wake up during the raid that was planned.

The raid was organized by Cook’s State Attorney, Edward Hanrahan and between 4-4:45 am, Chicago PD arrived at Hampton’s home and raided the apartment. Mark Clark was on security duty and was killed instantly. Hampton was in the room sleep next to his pregnant girlfriend, Deborah and was shot in the shoulder. Upon realizing he wasn’t dead, they shot him twice in the head at point blank range stating “He’s good and dead now”. The remaining BPP members in the house were shot, wounded, and dragged into the streets and were arrested on aggrevated assault charges and attempted murder of the officers.

Fred Hampton was only 21… and me being a lover of the history of the BPP, this story angered me. How could there be this much HATE in the world that we live in. Then the fact that they orchestrated this raid while there was a pregnant female in that house and then having the NERVE to charge them with attempted murder on police officers when no one fired off a single shot towards those officers.

(Source: southrnbird)