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Page 6 • THE MAROON TIGER • Wednesay, January 30, 1991
HISTORY
Legalized Terrorists: The FBI’s Role in the Murder,
Repression and Destruction of Africans in the United States
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.
The Black Panther Party and thousands of activists involved in the Black Power move
ment suffered from unprecedented government repression when the FBI unleashed a very
complex and often deadly campaign of destruction on Black liberation organizations.
Part three of a three part series
by Ogbonna Ogumba (Jeffrey A.
Green).
By Ogbonna Ogumba
(Jeffrey A. Green)
As the non-violent Civil-
Rights Movement continued in
the United States throughout
the 1960’s, a growing discontent
among many African youth
emerged with the call for a more
militant posture of black ac
tivism. During a 1966 Mississip
pi march Student Non-violent
Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) leaders Kwame Ture
(formerly Stokeley Carmichael)
and Mukassa (formerly Willie
Ricks) gave a rallying and con
troversial cry for Black Power.
The crowd of nearly three thou
sand people responded by chan
ting “Black Power!” several
times. This incident, and others,
helped precipitate the growth of
a movement that was to fright
en the oppressive powers of the
United States to such a degree
that the government would
resort to unprecedented levels
of terrorism to repress it.
The organization that suffered
perhaps the greatest amount of
repressive terrorist activities
during this era was the Black
Panther Party. The US govern
ment, through the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, in the
words of a prominent negro
FBI operative, Darthard Perry,
“was bound and determined to
get rid of the Panthers.” By
1971 the FBI initiated at least
295 operations against Black
liberation organizations; 233 of
that total were targeted against
the Black Panthers. Darthard
Perry, code-named “Othello”,
noted in a Penthouse magazine
interview that from 1968 to 1975
he was a paid undercover
operative for the FBI and com
mitted many crimes for the
bureau that were never un
covered in the congressional
hearings on the FBI in 1975.
Othello stated that the crimes
that were revealed were not a
tenth of what the bureau was
doing.
The techniques used to
disrupt and destroy organiza
tions struggling for the uplift-
ment of African people were
numerous. Burglaries, false cor
respondence, political assassina
tions, beatings, infiltration, and
false arrests were all acts used
to neutralize thousands of ac
tivists in the United States. In
regard to false arrests, FBI
agents were told that since the
“purpose...is to disrupt...it is im
material whether facts exist to
substantiate the charge.” The
BPP was hit with 768 arrests
between May 1967 and Decem
ber 1969.
The FBI’s Counterintelli
gence Program (COINTELPRO)
was the centerpiece of the
destruction unleashed upon
Black organizations by the
federal government. The second
objective listed on a March 1968
COINTELPRO document
urges the bureau to “prevent
the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could
unify, and electrify, the militant
black nationalist movement.”
This directive encouraged the
bureau to neutralize activists
who posed a potential threat.
Among these was BPP leader
Fred Hampton.
In 1961 at the age of 13 Fred
Hampton was elected president
of the Maywood, Illinois youth
chapter of the NAACP. The
size of the chapter under Hamp
ton’s leadership increased from
17 to 700. Hampton acquired the
necessary tools for leadership in
his early years; he also acquired
an FBI file for his activism
before he reached the age of 14.
In 1967 Fred Hampton and
others founded the Illinois state
chapter of the BPP. Hampton
became chairman. Under his
leadership the chapter started a
free breakfast program in which
three thousand children were
fed per week in Chicago alone.
The Party became the first
organization to have sickle cell
anemia testing in African com
munities. The Party established
a free medical center with
politicized volunteer doctors.
The BPP held political educa
tion classes in which topics
ranged from Malcolm X to
Mao’s red book. The Panthers
under Hampton established con
tact with local street gangs in
a move to politicize and unify
them. Members sold the Black
Panther newspapers, and
solicited funds to finance BPP
programs. Hampton even work
ed in coalition with other ac
tivist groups in order to in
crease effectiveness. His
charisma, intelligence and
dedication prompted the Party
to arrange a promotion of
Hampton from regional to na
tional prominence within the
BPP.
Despite the good that the
Panthers and Hampton gave to
the oppressed African communi
ty, there were powers that
worked diligently to destroy
this movement. The shining
light Hampton bestowed upon
his people was brutally snuffed
out one cold winter morning in
1969.
A 1973 report from the “Com
mission of Inquiry into the
Black Panthers and the Police”,
by Roy Wilkins and Ramsey
Clark, states: “On December 4,
1969...at about 4:45 a.m., by
heavy gunfire, eighty rounds or
more...Fred Hampton and Mark
Clark were dead. Four other oc
cupants were seriously wound
ed...” The fourteen-man raiding
party was equippped with semi
automatic rifles, a submachine
gun, shotguns, and handguns.
Panthers Doc Satchel, Verlina
Brewer, Blair Anderson, and
another unarmed occupant were
shot down. The victims were
between the ages of 17 and 21
years of age.
Initially the government
claimed that the “vicious” and
“criminal” Panthers fought the
officers who acted "reasonably”
and with “restraint.” Investiga
tions, However, revealed a dif
ferent story. At least eighty
rounds of gunfire came ex
clusively from police, except for
one shot that injured no one.
Hampton was drugged with
secobarbital by negro FBI infor
mant William O’Neal who also
gave a detailed lay-out of the
BPP headquarters in order to
facilitate the raid and execution.
The commission stated that
there could be no justification
for the actions of the police in
volved. The vice president of
the Afro-American Patrolmens’
League believed the shootings
were an “obvious political
assassination.” Admitting to
guilt, the government had to
pay $1.8 million to the parents
and survivors in 1983.
The story of Hampton is but
one of many incidents of ter
rorism initiated against those
Continued on Page 9