Black Panther Party

FBI and Chicago Police Assassinate Black Panther Leader Fred Hampton in Pre-Dawn Raid

| Importance: 9/10

On December 4, 1969, at 4:45 a.m., fourteen Chicago police officers raided the apartment of Fred Hampton, 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. Police fired between 82 and 99 shots into the apartment; the Panthers fired at most one. Hampton was shot twice in the head at …

Fred Hampton J. Edgar Hoover FBI Chicago Police Department Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan +2 more fbi-abuse cointelpro civil-rights police-brutality institutional-corruption +1 more
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FBI COINTELPRO Launches Black Nationalist Hate Groups Program Targeting Civil Rights Leaders

| Importance: 9/10

On August 25, 1967, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized the expansion of the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to create a new initiative targeting “Black Nationalist–Hate Groups.” This program represented a systematic effort by the nation’s premier law enforcement …

J. Edgar Hoover FBI Martin Luther King Jr. Black Panther Party William C. Sullivan surveillance civil-rights fbi-abuse institutional-corruption democratic-erosion
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Reagan Signs Mulford Act Gun Control Law With NRA Support to Disarm Black Panthers Armed Patrols

| Importance: 7/10

Governor Ronald Reagan signs the Mulford Act into law, prohibiting the public carrying of loaded firearms in California without a permit. The legislation, crafted by Republican Assemblyman Don Mulford with assistance from the National Rifle Association, specifically targets the Black Panther …

Governor Ronald Reagan Don Mulford National Rifle Association Black Panther Party California State Legislature gun-control racial-politics nra black-panthers selective-enforcement
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