Fred Hampton
Black Panthers in Chicago
The Videofreex conducted this interview with Fred Hampton, the Deputy Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, in October 1969, just over a month before he was killed by the Chicago police.
“We recorded Hampton with a wide-angle lens at the home of a wealthy Chicago woman named Lucy Montgomery. She owned a Prairie School house furnished with modern art. Hampton arrived late with a small entourage and paid no attention to the lavish surroundings. He looked tired but strong. He was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the party, and though he was just my age, he seemed so much older than me. If our crawling around to frame him from all different angles bothered him, he didn’t let on. He had a message to impart and ignored the distraction.”
— Parry D. Teasdale, Videofreex: America’s First Pirate TV Station, Black-Dome Press
During the interview, Fred Hampton talks eloquently and passionately about the Free Breakfast for Children Program and Free Health Clinic set up by the Black Panthers to feed and tend to the poor and hungry. In response to a specific question about events in Chicago and the conspiracy trial, he talks about how those running the city are “crazy with power,” about racism, fascism and imperialism, and the need to educate and organize, to lead by example. He criticizes the recent Weathermen actions, seeing the group as counter-revolutionaries. In reply to a question about how they will defend themselves from retaliations from the powers that be, Hampton says that the struggle is not about individual people, but the masses, and that there will always be new people coming up to replace them.
This video is distributed by the Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For more information: www.Videofreex.com.
How to support protesters and organizers via donations:
*Please let us know of other resources that we haven’t included and we will add them! If you donate to 10 of these funds, regardless of amount, you will receive 10 passes to future Nightingale screenings. Send screenshots of your receipts to thenightingalecinema@gmail.com.
National Resource List #GeorgeFloyd+
Midwest:
Detroit Justice Center: The Bail Project
Google Doc of Minneapolis Solidarity Donations
Northeast:
Seed of Wisdom – Mike Africa Jr.
Mid-Atlantic:
West:
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Bay Area Anti- Repression Committee Bail Fund
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)
Southwest:
400+1 Bail Fund Austin (prioritizes LGBTQIA BIPOC bail funds)
Black Nurses Association, Greater Phoenix Area
Tuscon Second Chance Community Bail Fund
Native American Relief Fund, Santa Fe
South:
Solidarity for the Unhoused in New Orleans
New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund
Mississippi Bail Fund Collective
Housing Justice League Atlanta
Louisville Community Bail Fund
Tampa Bay Community Support Fund
Resources for anti-racism:
Working document for scaffolding anti-racism resources.
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