Assassination of Fred Hampton

Common card · No. 284376

On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, a Marxist-Leninist African American activist, chairman of the Black Panther Party's Illinois chapter, and founder of the Rainbow Coalition, was shot and killed in his sleep during a predawn police raid at his apartment in Chicago, Illinois. He was 21 years old. Also killed was fellow Panther Mark Clark, who was on security duty. The raid was conducted by a team of 14 officers from the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County State's Attorney's office, organized by State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan, and orchestrated with the assistance of the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO program to neutralize the Black Panther Party and Rainbow Coalition. The police claimed they had been attacked by the Panthers and defended themselves accordingly, this claim was later disproven. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Associated Press, Public domain