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Fred Hampton Needs To Be on Your Kids’ American History Syllabus
Hampton’s story, even in the abbreviated form that ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ provides, is too important not to tell
“Fred Hampton was on track to do a great many things before being gunned down in his sleep at the age of 21 by the Chicago Police Department: found the Rainbow Coalition, expand free breakfast programs across Chicago, open a free health clinic, and perhaps save the Black Panther Party from the obvious targets of its iconic trinity (and a few inner demons) in Newton, Seale, and Cleaver. Hampton was the kind of recruit the Black Panthers were starving for, and despite his young age he quickly took to the work with the steady hand of an experienced activist. A shining example of the possibilities of the ideology and agenda of the Black Panther Party, Hampton was widely viewed as the person most likely to move the party most productively into the future.” —
Read Woods’ entire story below.
