Fred Hampton: A Giant In Chicago

Fred Hampton was born August 30, 1948 and was brutally murdered in his apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department and FBI aiding in the outright murder of one of our young leaders. After his December 4, 1969 murder the Chicago Police continued for many years murdered and falsely incarcerated members of Black leaders and their followers to carry out the mission of the Federal Government (liquidate, kill, and dismantle any Black run or operated groups that did not seek to maintain the status quo). Fred Hampton lived and died one of our illuminated minds driving forward with an active campaign to better protect, build, and elevate our communities at all cost. Unfortunately, our enemies managed to cut this beautiful example of the potential of Black youth short before he reached his prime.

Excerpt From David Walker’s Appeal

“Are we MEN! ! — I ask you, 0 my brethren I are we MEN? Did our Creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance before the tribunal of Heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the body, as well as we? Have we any other Master but Jesus Christ alone? Is he not their Master as well as ours? — What right then, have we to obey and call any other Master, but Himself? How we could be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as good as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is shut up with the Lord, and we cannot precisely tell — but I declare, we judge men by their works.”

David Walker’s Appeal (Published in September 1825) is quite possibly one of the most radical anti-slavery documents and still holds relevance to the plight of people of color around the world today.

Benjamin Banneker: Your Brother and Mine

On August 19th, 1791 Benjamin Banneker (A Black Man) sends a copy of his just published Almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along with a letter confronting his (Thomas Jefferson’s) hypocrisy of White America in enslaving Africans while at the same time declaring the “true and invaluable” doctrine of the “natural rights” of humankind.

Notable: He was also an Astronomer, Mathematician, Surveyor, an Writer among other things.

Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program

In January 1969, the first Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program is initiated at St. Augustine’s Church in Oakland California. By the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school. This program and the BPP (Black Panther Party) were deemed the “greatest threat to America’s national security” by J. Edgar Hoover the Director of the FBI. The BPP was infiltrated by use of government-sponsored programs (i.e. The Counter Intelligence Program or COINTELPRO) that lead to the death, exile, and incarceration of its leaders and membership. The ultimate goals of the BPP were expressed in its Ten Point Program where they promoted such ideas as independence, collective economics, political action, and self-defense.