Assassinated by the State

Jeffrey Haas tells a story that many of us have long waited to read. His book, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (Lawrence Hill Books, November), is a much-needed corrective to a badly distorted mainstream narrative of a key event in the history of the left and African-American politics of the late '60s. Haas reveals just how deeply the Nixon Justice Department was involved in the Chicago police raid on December 4, 1969, that killed Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Hampton headed the Panthers' Chicago branch and Clark the Peoria, Ill., branch. It is now clear that Hampton and Clark were victims of a plot hatched by the FBI and executed by the Cook County State's Attorney and Chicago police officers. Nonetheless, conventional wisdom portrays the Panthers as the villains. In 2006, Chicago's City Council, under pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police, voted down a routine city ordinance to name the block on which Hampton's murder took place in his honor. The accumulation of facts presented in Haas' book portrays Chicago police as all too willing to violate the constitutional rights of Panther members and supporters. He reveals the cynical treachery of State Attorney Edward Hanrahan, whose office planned the raid under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover's Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Haas also provides a damning portrayal of one obstinate judge's continued attempts to thwart the legal process.