In the wake of recent killings of black people in the US, resulting in protests, we go back to December 4, 1969 when the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Fredrick Allen Hampton, was assassinated in bed.
As if killing 21-year-old Hampton was not enough, his 19-year-old pregnant fiancée Deborah Johnson alias Akua Njeri was also in bed with him.
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Just 25 days after this callous treatment of black citizens, Njeri, who was then eight-and-a-half-month pregnant birthed Fred Hampton, Jr.
“December 4th co-coordinates with POCC (Prisoners of Conscience Committee) the annual Aug. 30 birthday celebration and commemoration of Chairman Fred Hampton and the life, work and commemorative events around the annual December 4th International Revolutionary Day (IRD), the anniversary of the “Massacre on Monroe” – the assassination of Chairman Fred and Defense Captain Mark Clark.”
The December 4 deadly raid uncovered government motives, and their efforts to silence the Black Panther movement and decades later, the federal government, Cook County, and City of Chicago paid a $1.8 million settlement to Clark and Hampton’s families, along with the survivors.