Skip to content Skip to footer

Fred Hampton: The Fight for Truth

Flint Taylor, Jeffrey Haas and Chip Gibbons discuss the latest revelations about the FBI’s role in Hampton’s death.

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.”

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy