On December 4, 1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated by Chicago cops while they slept. The murders were part of the FBI’s COINTELPRO. Fred was deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and a rising charismatic leader. He was only 21; Mark was 22. There are potential Freds and Marks walking our streets today that need to know their history and who their enemy is. The spirit of the Black Panther lives on!
Police Chiefs and County Sheriffs across the country will tell you with a straight face that it’s the anti-police rhetoric that’s responsible for the precipitous drop in staffing and the inability to recruit. Milwaukee County recently pulled street patrol personnel and reassigned them to the courts. Dane County’s plan is moving ahead to expand its jail despite the disproportionate numbers of African Americans being housed.
The Discovery Flight program is free and introduces young people from 8-18 years old to flying and the history of famed Black Airmen.
CORE’s just demand was to hire four employees to address the racist hiring practices in St. Louis banking institutions. When the bank’s response was that there were not “four Blacks in the city” fit for such jobs, CORE launched a protest that became the longest and most contentious in St. Louis civil rights history.
