Austin Weekly News 120419

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Vol. 33 No. 49

December 4, 2019

A poem for Fred Hampton,

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PAGES 11-12

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Death of a native son Fifty years ago, Fred Hampton’s assassination rocked his suburban hometown to its core By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

Fifty years ago today — Dec. 4, 1969 — Black Panther leader and Maywood native Fred Hampton was assassinated during an early-morning police raid on his apartment, located on the West Side at 2337 W. Monroe. He was 21 years old. Articles published in the Proviso Herald at the time give some indication of how Hampton’s hometown, west suburban Maywood, reacted to the death of its most controversial resident. In a testament to the power of local journalism, Herald reporters Paul Sassone and Carol Swatos wrote about how getting to know the fiery young man (in Swatos’ case, even driving him home from a meeting once) tempered their perspective on Hampton personally and on the issues that he was so passionate about — no easy feat for white people at the time, considering the power of propaganda leveraged in service to the myth that the racism blacks were complaining about was not real, or at least not so bad that black people should be up in arms about it. That myth was held up by both the government and the press. For instance, less than a month before Hampton’s death, the Chicago Tribune penned an editorial, “No Quarter for Wild Beasts,” which lambasted the Black Panthers’ role in a shootout with law enforcement that left a policeman and a Panther dead, and seven other policemen

BOB BROWN/Contributor

EXECUTED, THEN MOURNED: Thousands packed the First Baptist Church in west suburban Melrose Park on Dec. 9, 1969, for the funeral of slain Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was killed in an illegal police raid at his West Side apartment on Dec. 4, 1969. wounded. “The Black Panthers, who were waiting for the police to come after them, fired from concealed positions, gunning down the first policemen on the scene before they could draw their weapons,” the Tribune editorial board stated in a piece published Nov. 15, 1969. The paper called the Panthers “murderous fanatics, who have been persuaded that they have a right to shoot and kill policemen” before making the reckless argument that the Panthers weren’t even worthy of due process. The Black Panthers “should be kept under constant surveillance,” the paper wrote. “They have declared war on society. They therefore have forfeited the right to considerations ordinary violators of the law might

claim.” In the Dec. 11, 1969 Proviso Herald, Sassone recalled his only time meeting Hampton in the flesh (“my first, and last, look at the man whose name had become synonymous with black radicalism in the Chicago area”). The meeting, Hampton’s “last speaking engagement in Proviso,” was held in October 1969, at First Baptist Church in Melrose Park, where Hampton would be memorialized just two months later. “Look, I’m 21,” Sassone recalled Hampton saying at the meeting, which was held to discuss racism in the suburbs. “If you think it has all happened in 21 years and that I did it, then you should take me out and shoot me. But you and I know that these situations have been around for a long time.”

Captivated by Hampton’s charisma and his intelligence, Sassone was convinced that “the ‘power structure’ was afraid of him for the wrong reasons. Hampton was no hoodlum or gangster. He was an intelligent and highly articulate revolutionary. That is, he didn’t like the way America was being run and wanted a change, using any means necessary.” During that last public meeting, Hampton seemed to preempt the claims made in the incendiary editorial the Tribune would publish the next month. “We have a right to live,” Hampton said. “If you shoot at me, I shoot at you. If I have to be non-violent in a situation, I’m not going

State Farm Mutual Automobile • Insurance Company State Farm Indemnity Company • Bloomington, IL • statefarm.com® Larry and his staff are licensed and together have over 75 years of State Farm experience.

See HAMPTON on page 6

Larry Williams,Agent 5932 W. Lake Street Chicago, 60644 (773) 379-9010 larry.williams.b0bk@statefarm.com


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