Today in Labor History August 30, 1948: Fred Hampton revolutionary activist and chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party was born. He founded the antiracist, anti-class Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that included Black Panthers, Young Patriots (which organized poor whites), and the Young Lords (which organized Hispanics), and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. In December 1969, the Chicago police & FBI drugged Hampton, shot him and killed him in his bed during a predawn raid. They sprayed more than 90 gunshots throughout his apartment. They also killed Black Panther Mark Clark and wounded several others. In January 1970, a jury concluded that Hampton's and Clark's deaths were justifiable homicides.

Stephen King refers to Hampton in his novel “11/22/63” (2012). In that book, a character suggests that if you could travel back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, it could have a ripple effect that also prevented Hampton's assassination.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #BlackPanthers #FredHampton #chicago #police #PoliceMurder #PoliceBrutality #fbi #racism #StephenKing #fiction #books #novel #writer #author #BlackMastadon @bookstadon

@Mor696

I hear you. But to say people who fight back are responsible for police violence is wrong. We must push back against state sanctioned violence. #Abolition

It is the white & nonviolent nonviolent people who should be on the front lines during protest events. Folks hurtling shit at police should be behind them, protected. And in terms of effectiveness, MLK was effective because white folks were terrified of Malcolm X & the Panthers. #FredHampton

Reminder that the #BPP started school lunch programs. #FredHampton #BlackPantherParty #BlackHistoryMonth

Today in Labor History December 4, 1969: Chicago Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, were assassinated by the Chicago Police, with assistance from the FBI. Hampton was chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party (BPP) and deputy chairman of the national BPP. He founded the antiracist, anti-classist Rainbow Coalition, which included the Black Panthers, Young Lords and Young Patriots (a radical poor white people’s movement). On the night of the assassination, an infiltrator drugged Hampton with barbiturates. He remained unconscious when the cops entered his bedroom, dragged away his pregnant girlfriend, then fired several shots into his chest and head.

#FredHampton #blackpanthers #police #fbi #younglords

On this day, in #1969, #Chicago #police assassinated #FredHampton

The police are not here to protect us, and no amount of reform can change that.

#RestInPower Mr. Fred Hampton.

#ACAB #AllCopsAreBastards #JohnBrown

“His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light, his was as the burning sun. Mine was bounded by time. His stretched away to the silent shores of eternity. I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave. I could live for the slave. John Brown could die for the slave.”

Frederick Douglass, as quoted in A Lecture On John Brown.