by Joshua Bloom
25. Bunchy Carter quoted in “What Really Happened in Los Angeles,” Black Panther, December 20, 1969, 12.
26. Mervin Dymally quoted in Dial Torgerson, “Police Seize Panther Fortress in 4-Hour Gunfight, Arrest 13,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1969, 1.
27. This suggests how resilience works. The moderate leaders’ statements show that they understood the repression experienced by the Panthers, and because they felt themselves to be in the same boat, they believed they were under threat whenever the Panthers were repressed. The later repeal of the draft and development of affirmative action programs eroded that sense of identity with the Panther cause for many middle-class blacks and antiwar liberals, so they no longer felt themselves to be in the same boat: repression of the Panthers was no longer threatening to them.
28. Art Berman and Roy Haynes, “Negro Leaders Call for City Hall Mass Rally,” Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1969, 3.
29. Art Berman, “Thousands Protest Panther Raid in City Hall,” Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1969, 1.
10. HAMPTON AND CLARK
1. Bobby Rush in David Hilliard and Lewis Cole, This Side of Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story of the Black Panther Party (New York: Little, Brown, 1993), 214–15. The description of Fred Hampton also draws from the documentary film The Murder of Fred Hampton, directed by Howard Alk (Chicago: Film Group, 1971), DVD, 88 min.; and from Jesse Jackson, “On Fred Hampton,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 13, 1969, 1.
2. Dave Potter, “Martial Law in Maywood Provokes More Boycotts,” Chicago Daily Defender, September 27, 1967, 3; some of the biographical details about Hampton come from Akua Njeri, My Life with the Black Panther Party (St. Petersburg, FL: Burning Spear Publications, 1991), 29.
3. Bobby Rush in Hilliard and Cole, This Side of Glory, 214–15.
4. Jon Rice, “Black Radicalism on Chicago’s West Side: A History of the Illinois Black Panther Party (PhD diss., Northern Illinois University, 1998), 71–72; Bobby Rush in Hilliard and Cole, This Side of Glory, 214–15. Former members of the Disciples gang had set up a Panther chapter in Chicago earlier, but it was not very active and merged with Hampton and Rush’s group. In This Side of Glory, Hilliard recalls that Masai Hewitt, as acting minister of education, accidentally ended up in Chicago and helped Rush start the new chapter. But the details of the story don’t quite make sense. The chapter must have been started in 1968, because the FBI documented plans for it in late 1968, which is why it began monitoring the Blackstone Rangers under COINTELPRO. But Hewitt was not appointed minister of education until after the strike at San Francisco State and is first listed as such in the Black Panther, July 12, 1969, 23. On Hewitt’s involvement in Chicago, see Clark Kissenger, Guardian Midwest Bureau, “Chicago Panthers Busted,” reprinted in Black Panther, May 4, 1969, 6; and “Chicago Panthers Serve the People,” Black Panther, May 31, 1969, 4. Hewitt may have played an important role in the chapter’s development after it was established.
5. James Alan McPherson, “Chicago’s Blackstone Rangers,” Atlantic Monthly, May 1969 (part 1) and June 1969 (part 2).
6. FBI memo, December 20, 1968, quoted in Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities [Church Committee], Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Final Report, S. Doc. No. 94–755 (April 1976), book 3, 196 [hereafter Church Committee Report].
7. Memo, Chicago Field Office to FBI Headquarters, January 10, 1969, quoted in Church Committee Report, book 3, 197 (emphasis added in report).
8. Memo, Chicago Field Office to FBI Headquarters, January 13, 1969, quoted in Church Committee Report, book 3, 197.
9. Church Committee Report, book 3, 198.
10. At a press conference in April, Hampton said, “Any enemies of the people will never be able to divide and create hostilities between class brothers, just like they tried to create conflict between the Panthers and the Stones [Blackstone Rangers] but there is no fighting between us.” This statement shows that Hampton knew that infiltrators were responsible for provoking the conflict years before full exposure of the COINTELPRO. Hampton quoted in Faith C. Christmas, “Black Panthers Cite ‘Persecution,’” Chicago Daily Defender, April 14, 1969, 3
11. “Panther Official Convicted, Freed By Judge Jones,” Chicago Daily Defender, April 9, 1969, 1; Clark Kissenger, Guardian Midwest Bureau, “Chicago Panthers Busted,” reprinted in Black Panther, May 4, 1969, 6.
12. Christmas, “Black Panthers Cite ‘Persecution,’” 3
13. “Panther Official Convicted, Freed By Judge Jones,” 1.
14. Williams had defended notables such as black civil rights activist and comedian Dick Gregory, and in 1972, she would become the first black female judge in the state of Arizona.
15. “Panther Official Convicted, Freed By Judge Jones,” 1.
16. Hampton quoted in Christmas, “Black Panthers Cite ‘Persecution,’” 3
17. Murder of Fred Hampton, 29:40.
18. Bobby Seale in ibid., 6:08.
19. “Black Alliance Sides with Panthers Here,” Chicago Daily Defender, May 29, 1969. See also “Panther Official Convicted, Freed by Judge Jones,” 1, on Hanrahan’s efforts to pressure the judge; and Murder of Fred Hampton, 40:30, for footage of Bobby Rush at the May 27, 1969, press conference.
20. “Chicago Panthers Serve the People,” Black Panther, May 31, 1969, 4.
21. Kissenger, “Chicago Panthers Busted,” 6.
22. Ibid. This first article to cover the Chicago Panthers in the Black Panther features a photo of Chairman Bobby Seale, Field Marshal Donald Cox, and future Minister of Education Masai Hewitt meeting in the Chicago office with Hampton and Rush.
23. Kissenger, “Chicago Panthers Busted,” 6.
24. “Chicago Panthers Serve the People,” 4.
25. David Hilliard, “Statement from Chief of Staff: Attack on Chicago Office,” Black Panther, October 11, 1969, 3.
26. “Panthers, FBI Tell Views,” Chicago Daily Defender, June 5, 1969, 1; Tommy Picou, “Rush Says U.S. Bent on Panther Extermination,” Chicago Daily Defender, June 7, 1969, 1. The FBI’s pretext for the raid was that it was searching for fugitive George Sams, a key figure in the torture and killing of Alex Rackley in New Haven, who many authors have subsequently suggested was himself working for the FBI.
27. Donald Mosby, “Tighten Noose on Panthers, Grand Jury Hits Leaders,” Chicago Daily Defender, June 11, 1969, 1; “16 Chicago Panthers Indicted—Face Electric Chair,” Black Panther, June 28, 1969, 16. On O’Neal’s secret employment by the FBI, see Kenneth O’Reilly, “Racial Matters”: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America, 1960–1972 (New York: Free Press, 1998), 310–11.
28. Donald Mosby, “2 Arrested after Shoot-Out,” Chicago Daily Defender, July 17, 1969, 3; Cheryl Peterson, “Mystery Surrounds the Attack on Chicago Panthers,” Black Panther, August 9, 1969, 20; [FBI infiltrator William] O’Neal, “Chicago Panthers Shot by Fascist Pigs,” Black Panther, August 9, 1969, 22; “Revolutionary Murdered,” Black Panther, September 20, 1969, 5.
29. “What Really Happened in Chicago from an Interview with Bobby Rush,” Black Panther, August 9, 1969, 20; “Chicago Panther Office Vamped on by Pigs,” Black Panther, August 16, 1969, 16–17; Murder of Fred Hampton, about 43:00.
30. Murder of Fred Hampton, about 35:00.
31. “Panthers Raid Was Smear,” Chicago Daily Defender, October 6, 1969, 1; “Illinois Office Ambushed No. 3,” Black Panther, October 11, 1969, 4; Hilliard, “Statement from Chief of Staff,” 3.
32. Hilliard, “Statement from Chief of Staff,” 3.
33. John P. Vasilopoulos, “Joint Coalition, Black Panther Rally Set Today,” Chicago Daily Defender, November 3, 1969, 4. The group held a joint press conference at the Urban Training Center on Ashland Avenue.
34. “Revolutionary Murdered,” 5.
35. Thomas M. Gray, “Order FBI to Probe Slayings of 2 Brothers Here,” Chicago Sun-Times, January 7, 1970; Sam Was
hington, “Nightmare to Reality: How Brothers Died in Ghetto,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 2, 1970; Michael Soto and John Soto, appendix to The Police and Their Use of Fatal Force in Chicago, by Ralph Knoohuizen, Richard P. Fahey, and Deborah J. Palmer (Chicago: Chicago Law Enforcement Study Group, 1972).
36. News clippings reproduced in Linda Anderson, appendix to Knoohuizen, Fahey, and Palmer, The Police and Their Use of Fatal Force in Chicago.
37. Knoohuizen, Fahey, and Palmer, The Police and Their Use of Fatal Force in Chicago, 20.
38. This account of Spurgeon Jake Winters’s stand against the Chicago police draws from Rice, “Black Radicalism on Chicago’s West Side,” 157–62. Rice cites newspaper articles from the November 14, 1969, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, as well as from the Chicago Daily Defender, November 22–28, 1969. He also interviewed former Panthers Henry English, Locket Dibbs, and Bobby Rush. See also the photo of Winters in Black Panther, January 10, 1970, 7; and the news clippings reproduced in Spurgeon Winters, appendix to Knoohuizen, Fahey, and Palmer, The Police and Their Use of Fatal Force in Chicago.
39. Hampton v. Hanrahan, 600 F.2d 600 (7th Cir. 1970), §§ 47–49; on warrantless wiretap authorization, see §§ 52.
40. Ibid., §§ 53–54.
41. Ibid., §§ 56–65.
42. Fred P. Graham, “U.S. Jury Assails Police in Chicago on Panther Raid,” New York Times, May 16, 1970, 1; Hampton v. Hanrahan, §§ 66–81. For the specific weapons carried by the officers, see Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark, Search and Destroy: A Report by the Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police (New York: Metropolitan Applied Research Center, 1973), 35–36.
43. Hanrahan quote from television coverage in Murder of Fred Hampton, 53:55. See also John Kifner, “State’s Attorney in Chicago Makes Photographs of Black Panther Apartment Available,” New York Times, December 12, 1969, 46.
44. Memo, Chicago Field Office to FBI Headquarters, December 8, 1969, quoted in Church Committee Report, book 3, 223. On the approval of the bonus, see John Kifner, “F.B.I. Files Say Informer Got Data for Panther Raid,” New York Times, May 7, 1976, 14.
45. Faith C. Christmas, “Bobby Rush Surrenders before 5,000,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 8, 1969, 2.
46. Faith C. Christmas, “‘It Was Murder,’ Rush,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 6, 1969, 1; John Kifner, “Inquiry into Slaying of 2 Panthers Urged in Chicago,” New York Times, December 6, 1969.
47. Kifner, “Inquiry into Slaying of 2 Panthers Urged in Chicago.”
48. See extensive historical footage of Francis Andrew in The Murder of Fred Hampton. John Kifner, “Panthers Say an Autopsy Shows Party Official Was ‘Murdered,’” New York Times, December 7, 1969, 68; John Kifner, “Policeman Who Led Chicago Panther Raid Testifies at Boycotted Inquest,” New York Times, January 8, 1970, 27.
49. Kifner, “Panthers Say an Autopsy Shows Party Official was ‘Murdered,’” 68.
50. “Pigs Assassinate People’s Servants,” Black Panther, December 20, 1969, 8; “Fred Hampton—Mark Clark Inquest,” Black Panther, January 17, 1969, 3; see also “Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton Drugged Then Murdered,” Black Panther, January 17, 1969, 3.
51. Kifner, “Panthers Say an Autopsy Shows Party Official was ‘Murdered,’” 68; John Kifner, “Inquiry Is Urged in Slaying of Chicago Black Panther,” New York Times, December 9, 1969, 40; John Kifner, “Black Panthers Lose Plea to Bar a Subpoena for Three Doctors,” New York Times, January 14, 1970, 18.
52. Christmas, “Bobby Rush Surrenders before 5,000,” 2.
53. Ibid..
54. Ibid.
55. Faith C. Christmas, “Hampton’s Brother Tells Audience, ‘Maintain Peace,’ ”Chicago Daily Defender, December 8, 1969, 3.
56. John Kifner, “Chicago Panther Mourned,” New York Times, December 10, 1969, 37; John Kifner, “Coroner Seals Panther Slaying Site,” New York Times, December 18, 1969, 66; see also historical footage of the tours in The Murder of Fred Hampton, 55:00 and throughout.
57. Charles Garry statement in John Kifner, “Police in Chicago Slay 2 Panthers,” New York Times, December 5, 1969, 5.
58. David Hilliard statement quoted on front page, Black Panther, January 3, 1969. We slightly modified the transcriber’s punctuation for clarity.
59. Kifner, “Inquiry Is Urged,” 40; Kifner, “Panthers Say an Autopsy Shows Party Official was ‘Murdered,’” 68; John D. Vasilopoulos, “Rights Groups Unite in Probe Demand,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 9, 1969, 5.
60. Vasilopoulos, “Rights Groups Unite in Probe Demand,” 5.
61. “Was It Murder?” Chicago Daily Defender, December 8, 1969, 13.
62. Morris Kaplan, “25 Are Arraigned in Protest Here,” New York Times, December 11, 1969, 24.
63. Earl Caldwell, “Declining Black Panthers Gather New Support from Repeated Clashes with Police,” New York Times, December 14, 1969, 64.
64. “Fred Hampton Rites: An Epitaph to a Revolutionary,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 11, 1969, 1; “Inquiry in Chicago,” New York Times, December 11, 1969, 50.
65. Bobby Rush, historical footage in Murder of Fred Hampton, 53:00.
66. Kifner, “Chicago Panther Mourned,” 37; Jeffrey Hass, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010).
67. John D. Vasilopoulos, “Black Politicians Ask Death Probe,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 10, 1969.
68. “Afro Cops Begin Own Death Quiz,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 10, 1969, 3.
69. “Conference on Religion, Race Seeks Investigation,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 10, 1969, 2.
70. Carter Gilmore, NAACP statement on December 11, 1969, reprinted as “N.A.A.C.P. against Pig Repression of Black Panthers,” Black Panther, January 3, 1970, 3.
71. Kifner, “State’s Attorney in Chicago,” 46.
72. John Kifner, “Negroes in Chicago Impose a Curfew on Whites,” New York Times, December 16, 1969, 21.
73. John Kifner, “Chicago Negroes Back Off on Curfew,” New York Times, December 17, 1969, 42.
74. Ibid.
75. Jackson, “On Fred Hampton,” 1.
76. “Robert Williams Speaks at NCCF Panther Benefit; Detroit, Michigan,” transcript of speech, Black Panther, January 3, 1970, 20.
77. “National Urban League Backs Hampton Probe,” Chicago Daily Defender, December 17, 1969, 3.
78. John Kifner, “Coroner Seals Panther Slaying Site,” New York Times, December 18, 1969, 66.
79. Earl Caldwell, “Declining Black Panthers Gather New Support from Repeated Clashes with Police,” New York Times, December 14, 1969, 64.
80. Chaka Walls, “Black Representatives Investigate Government Conspiracy,” Black Panther, December 27, 1969, 7; John Kifner, “5 Negroes Start Panther Inquiry,” New York Times, December 21, 1969, 47.
81. John Kifner, “The ‘War’ Between Panthers and Police,” New York Times, December 21, 1969, E3.
82. “No Misconduct,” New York Times, December 20, 1969, 20; John Kifner, “2 Panther Deaths in Raid in Chicago Ruled ‘Justifiable,’” New York Times, January 22, 1970, 1.
83. Fred P. Graham, “Special U.S. Jury to Examine Deaths of Black Panthers,” New York Times, December 20, 1969, 1.
84. John Kifner, “3 Panthers Snub Hampton Inquest,” New York Times, January 7, 1970, 30.
85. Deborah Johnson, historical footage in Murder of Fred Hampton, about 1:10:00.
86. Paul L. Montgomery, “Militants Occupy Columbia School,” New York Times, March 14, 1970, 35.
87. Seth King, “7 Panthers Freed in Chicago Clash,” New York Times, May 9, 1970, 1.
88. Fred P. Graham, “U.S. Jury Assails Police in Chicago on Panther Raid,” New York Times, May 16, 1970, 1.
89. “Settlement Near in a Panther Suit: Government Reports Progress in 10-Year-Old Rights Suit over Raid in Chicago,” New York Times, October 26, 1982, A18; “$1.85 Million Settlement Ends Black Panther Suit,” New Yo
rk Times, March 2, 1983, 16. For the legal wrangling, see also Seth King, “Long-Delayed Chicago Civil Suit on Black Panther Raid Is Begun,” New York Times, January 23, 1976, 12; Seth King, “Ex-Head of Chicago F.B.I. Office Says Agency Sought to Discredit Panthers,” New York Times, February 22, 1976, 40; “Around the Nation,” New York Times, April 17, 1977, and April 24, 1979, A16; Seth King, “Black Panther Suit Dismissed in Chicago,” New York Times, June 21, 1977, 16; Nathaniel Sheppard Jr., “F.B.I. Assailed by U.S. Court in Black Panther Case,” New York Times, May 6, 1979, 20; “Rehnquist to Hear Black Panther Case,” New York Times, May 1, 1980, A21.
11. BOBBY AND ERICKA
1. State v. Seale and Huggins transcript, excerpted in Donald Freed, Agony in New Haven (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1973), 284. On the Connecticut Panthers pre-May 1969, see also Yohuru Williams, Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven (St. James, NY: Brandywine Press, 2000), 127–35; Paul Bass and Douglas W. Rae, Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer (New York: Basic Books, 2006), 59–65.
2. Bass and Rae, Murder in the Model City, 59–65; for Kimbro’s age, see John Darnton, “8 Black Panthers Seized in Torture-Murder Case,” New York Times, May 23, 1969, 24.
3. New Haven Panther flier quoted in Williams, Black Politics/White Power, 131.
4. Memo, J. Edgar Hoover to Special Agent in Charge, New Haven, March 28, 1969, quoted in Williams, Black Politics/White Power, 135.