Jeffrey Haas talked about his book The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther (Lawrence Hill Books; November 1, 2009). On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was shot dead in his bed during a police raid in which Mark Clark was also killed. In his book Jeffrey Haas recounts how he and Flint Taylor, his law partner, attempted to prove that Fred Hampton’s death was not self-defense, as the police advocates claimed, but was premeditated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Chicago police department.
The program opened with video footage from 1969. Jefrrey Haas talked about the life and death of Fred Hampton. Then a panel discussion on Fred Hampton was moderated by Bernardine Dohrn. His mother made remarks, and then Mr. Willis made closing remarks.
The event “Fred Hampton, Police Violence, Racism & the Law: A Retrospective” took place November 5, 2009, at 5:30 p.m. CT in Thorne Auditorium at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. The event was co-sponsored by: MacArthur Justice Center, The Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law, Madel Legal Aid Clinic, University of Chicago Law School, NCBL-Chicago, Black People Against Police Torture, Chicago Review Press, Citizens Alert, and others.
The Hampton and Clark families and survivors of the raid were honored at this event which took place 40 years after Fred Hampton spoke to the students and faculty of Northwestern University School of Law.