Also American
OppressionDecember 4, 1969

COINTELPRO and the killing of Fred Hampton

Chicago police, acting on FBI COINTELPRO intelligence, kill the 21-year-old Black Panther leader in his bed.

Key figures

Full storyCOINTELPRO: The FBI's War on Black America

Resources

Videos·1

The Black Panther Party — Crash Course Black American History #39
CrashCourse

The web

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.

  • documented by (incoming)·Article
    COINTELPRO: The FBI's War on Black America

    Hampton's killing is the starkest example of COINTELPRO's war on Black movements.

  • part of (incoming)·Person
    Fred Hampton

    Hampton was killed in a raid coordinated under the FBI's COINTELPRO program.

  • connects to·Event
    Nixon declares the War on Drugs

    The surveillance-and-criminalization logic of COINTELPRO carried directly into the War on Drugs two years later.

Where to go next