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When twenty-two-year-old Black Panther State Chairman Fred Hampton was killed in a 1969 raid on the headquarters of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, in what was believed to be an assassination orchestrated by Federal agents and city leaders, who feared that Hampton's influence could lead to an armed uprising by the city's most disenfranchised residents. His murder was done as part of a plan to disrupt and neutralize the Black liberation movement and the Black Panther Party specifically. Despite the his death at such a young age, he made monumental contributions to the movement for black liberation, working class revolution and socialism in the U.S. His example still shines and inspires people fighting for change almost 40 years later

Community involvements

Fred Hampton was a 19 year old high school student and very promising leader when he joined the Black Panther Party. By the time he was 20 years old he became the leader for the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party. He was very involved in activities that were meant to improve the black community in Chicago. He maintained regular speaking engagements and organized weekly rallies at the Chicago federal building on behalf of the Black Panther Party. He taught political education classes every morning, worked with a free People's Clinic, and launched a community control of police project. Hampton was also instrumental in the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program.

Hampton had the charisma to excite crowds during rallies; he was supposed to be appointed to the Party's Central Committee. His position would have been Chief of Staff if he had not an untimely death on the evening of December 4, 1969. Fred Hampton had the ability to speak to welfare mothers, street gang members and law students.He was a model leader doing the work as well as planning the strategy and giving orders. He brought together disparate groups and formed a coalition with the Puerto Rican Young Lords and the White Appalachian Young Patriots.With Fred Hampton as Chairman, the Chicago Black Panther’s membership increased so rapidly that for a while, they had to stop taking new members.Unfortunately, as his reputation and prominence increased, so did the FBI’s tracking of him. He was placed on a national “Agitator’s Index” and being seen as a threat, the FBI and President Hoover set out to eliminate him.

Impact on the Weather Underground Organization

The Weather Underground Organization, which was an outgrowth of [[Students for a Democratic Society [SDS]]], the largest U.S. organization of radical students in the 1960's , took the death of Fred Hampton very seriously.More than any other single incident, the Fred Hampton murder pushed the Weatherman to respond directly. What many believed to be a government-sanctioned killing in an effort to wipe out militant groups such as the Panthers was, for the Weathermen, the final straw. His brutal murder left Weather more convinced than ever that the U.S. governemnt was at war against its own people and that they needed to fight back.

The members of the Weather Underground Organization had seen and experienced police brutality, not only in Chicago but elsewhere. However, Fred Hampton's murder was signifcant. According to David Gilbert, a WUO member, "It was the murder of Fred Hampton more than any other factor that compelled us to feel [that] we had to take up armed struggle."His murder signaled a time to on to other forms of struggle, and provided one more reason to pursue a revolutionary agenda. In March 1970, Weather issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, using the first time its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO). [Assuming fake identities, and pledging to pursue covert activities.]Bernardine Dohrn subsequently stated that it was Fred Hampton's death that prompted the Weather Underground to declare war on the US government. "We felt that the murder of Fred required us to be more grave, more serious, more determined to raise the stakes and not just be the white people who wrung their hands when black people were being murdered." —Bernardine Dohrn

Immediately following Hampton's murder, the Weathermen firebombed several empty police cars in Chicago." At their Weather's last public gathering in late December, known as the SDS National War Council, the decision to go underground was officially announced." This as well as some claimed 25 bombings over the next several years were all in response to the murder of Fred Hampton.

References

• Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, Oakland,CA.
• Green, Sam and Rudd, Mark.Film Director and Group Veteran Discuss The Weather Underground,SAN DIEGO INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER. Retrieved on 2010-05-01
• Haas,Jeffrey. (2009)The Assassination of Fred Hampton:How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. Lawrence Hill Books
• The Weather Underground, produced by Carrie Lozano, directed by Bill Siegel and Sam Green, New Video Group, 2003, DVD.