Long-time civil rights attorneys Flint Taylor and Jeffrey Haas will join Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD) and Truthout as DRAD Policy Director and Still Spying Podcast host Chip Gibbons discusses the latest revelations about the FBI’s role in Fred Hampton’s death and why it matters.
Fifty-one years ago, the Chicago Police raided the office of the Illinois Black Panther Party, killing Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. The police initially claimed they acted in self-defense, but this was quickly exposed as a lie. The Chicago Police undeniably not only fired the first shots, but fired at least 83 times. As the official story fell apart, disturbing details emerged. Fred Hampton was not only likely drugged by an FBI informant the night of the raid, but the raid was part of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), covert actions designed to neutralize and disrupt political movements disfavored by the FBI. One of the goals of the program that killed Hampton was to “prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement.”
Central to exposing the truth about Hampton’s death at the hands of the state has been Flint Taylor and Jeffrey Haas, two lawyers with the People’s Law Office, which represented both Fred Hampton and the survivors of the raid that killed him. Their work led to the exposure of the FBI’s role in Hampton’s death and they are still working to shine a light on exactly what happened. On January 19, 2021, they published new revelations at Truthout: “New Documents Suggest J. Edgar Hoover Was Involved in Fred Hampton’s Murder.”
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
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