On this anniversary of the slaying of the Black Panther leader in Chicago — when black people face the fight of their lives — it is important for us to understand why his life and death mean so much to us now.

The charismatic chair of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party accomplished a great deal before he was cut down at the age of 21. Hampton headed the Chicago chapter of the Panthers, where he formed a multiracial “rainbow coalition” of organizations, including Students for a Democratic Society, the Blackstone Rangers street gang, and a Puerto Rican organization known as the National Young Lords. He also started a community service program that included a free breakfast program for children and a free medical clinic, and held political education classes.

And under his leadership, the Chicago Black Panthers monitored the police and looked out for instances of police brutality. Most of all, Fred Hampton brokered a truce among Chicago’s major street gangs.

The Black Panthers, and Hampton, caught the attention of J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI. Through his Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, Hoover sought to “prevent the rise of a black messiah” and “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters, and to counter their propensity for violence and civil disorder.” Hoover targeted black figures such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and organizations such the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Christian Leadership Conference, and the Panthers.

And Hoover viewed the Black Panthers breakfast program for schoolkids as the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States of America — grits, not guns.

In the hallowed American tradition of going after youthful black power and excellence, and stopping them in their tracks, the FBI took out the Black Panthers. And they took out Fred Hampton.
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