Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was a radical African American

The FBI

While Hampton impressed many of the people with whom he came into contact as a effective leader and talented communicator, those very qualities marked him as a major threat in the eyes of the FBI. It began keeping close tabs on his activities. Subsequent investigations have shown that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was determined to prevent the formation of a cohesive Black radical movement in the United States. Hoover saw the Panthers, and gang coalitions like that forged by Hampton in Chicago, as a frightening stepping stone toward the creation of just such a revolutionary body.

Related Topics:
FBI - J. Edgar Hoover

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The FBI opened a file on Hampton in 1967 that over the next two years expanded to twelve volumes containing over four-thousand pages. A wire tap was placed on Hampton's mother's phone in February of 1968. By May of that year, the young Panther's name was placed on the "Agitator Index" and he would be designated a "key militant leader for Bureau reporting purposes."

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In late 1968, the Racial Matters squad of the FBI's Chicago field office brought in an individual named William O'Neal, who had recently been arrested twice, for interstate car theft and impersonating a federal officer. In exchange for dropping the felony charges and a monthly stipend, O'Neal apparently agreed to infiltrate the BPP as a counterintelligence operative. He joined the Party and quickly rose in the organization, becoming Director of Chapter security and Hampton's bodyguard.

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By means of anonymous letters, the FBI sowed distrust and eventually a split between the Panthers and the Rangers, with O'Neal himself instigating an armed clash between the two on April 2, 1969. With the Panthers effectively isolated from their powerbase in the ghetto, the FBI went to work to undermine its ties with other radical organizations. O'Neal was instructed to "create a rift" between the Party and the SDS, whose Chicago headquarters was near the Panther's. The Bureau released a batch of racist cartoons in the Panthers' name, aimed to alienate white activists, and launched a disinformation program to forestall the realization of the Rainbow Coalition, a clear threat to the political status quo. In repeated directives, J. Edgar Hoover demanded that the COINTELPRO personnel "destroy what the stands for" and "eradicate its 'serve the people' programs".

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Meanwhile, the local Chicago police did not stand idly by. Urged on by the FBI, it launched an all-out assault on the Black Panthers and their allies, characterizing the group as just a criminal gang. The CPD instigated an unprovoked armed confrontation with party members on July 16, which left one member mortally wounded and six others arrested on serious charges. On July 31, the CPD raided and ransacked the Monroe Street office, smashing typewriters, destroying food and medical supplies for the Panther health clinic and breakfast program, setting several small fires, and beating and arresting a number of Panthers for obstruction. A similar raid took place on October 31.

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On May 26, 1969, Hampton was successfully prosecuted in a dubious case related to a theft in 1967 of US$72 worth of ice cream in Maywood. He was sentenced to two to five years but he managed to obtain an appeal bond and was released in August.

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In early October, Hampton and his girlfriend, Deborah Johnson, pregnant with their first child, rented a four-and-a-half room apartment on 2337 West Monroe Street to be closer to BPP headquarters. O'Neal reported to his superiors that much of the Panthers' "provocative" stockpile of arms was being stored there. In early November, Hampton travelled to California on a speaking engagement to the UCLA Law Students Association. While there, he met with the remaining BPP national hierarchy, who appointed him to the Party's Central Committee, to assume shortly thereafter the position of Chief of Staff and major spokesman. This, combined with Chicago BPP chapter having become one of the strongest in the country, with one of the most successful Serve the People programs, motivated the FBI to look for a more permanent way of neutralizing Hampton.

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