The night of December 4, 1969, Chicago police officers broke in and shot nearly 100 rounds of ammunition into an apartment, targeting the sleeping bodies of Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, killing both.
The officers then lied about what happened that night, claiming there was a shootout. The FBI Agents involved in this assassination were a part of COINTELPRO – an effort by the government to destroy Black liberation movements.
They hid their involvement in the raid altogether.
Sensing a conspiracy, an activist group searched a Pennsylvania FBI office – where they discovered documents that outlined the true nature of COINTELPRO operations!
The group found a floor plan of Hampton’s apartment. One memo even congratulated William O’Neal, the Chief of Security for the Illinois Black Panther Party chapter, for playing a crucial role as an INFORMANT!
Hampton and Clark’s families demanded justice and would later win a lawsuit against the FBI, Illinois State Attorney Edward Hanrahan’s office, and the Chicago police force – worth $1.85 million for each agency’s involvement in the murderous raid.
It was because of this case that 200 volumes of previously unreleased information surfaced, exposing the lengths the U.S. government would go through to take down Black activists who just wanted to see their people live free.