Forty-five years ago, December 4,1969, Fred Hampton, the very young and charismatic leader of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, was assassinated by the Chicago Police.
The Black Panther issue of Vortex, an alternative newspaper published in Lawrence, Kansas, was on the streets shortly after Hampton's murder. The cover featured a woodcut and the headline Chief Pig Kelley Sells Guns to the Minutemen.
The issue reproduced several documents -- given to Vortex by the Kansas City Chapter of the Black Panther Party. The documents showing that the Kansas City Police Department was not only supporting the far right wing Minutemen, but was selling/or giving guns to that right wing organization.
The issue also contained a poem responding to the murder of Hampton by the Chicago police. ("Chief Pig Kelley” later went on to head Nixon's Federal Bureau of Investigation.)
“Fred Hampton: 1948-1969” (from Vortex, December 1969)
Fred Hampton is dead.
Illinois Chairman Black Panther Party dead.
Fred Hampton dead.
Details surrounding death unclear.
Clear. Fred Hampton dead.
Clear. Cops killers.
Middle of night cops killed him. & they lie about it.
Fred Hampton lies dead.
Surrounded by Brothers.
Fred Hampton dead.
Cops killed him. Cops lie over killing.
Fred Hampton dead.
Twenty-one year-old Fred Hampton dead..
Killed by policemen. Police men
Immigrant families. Police
Men. Little children. Careful wives.
Policemen. Kiwanis American
Legion Policemen.
Questions asked.
Answers not given.
Much blood. Blood.
& more blood. Fred
Hampton dead. In Chicago.
In Chicago Fred Hampton, killed & lied over and over.
Policemen with good healthy families.