Image: Site of Black Panther Party Raid, Fred Hampton's Death

Description: The Chicago Police Department, acting on orders from Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan with information given to him by the FBI, raided the home of Fred Hampton which was located here. The details of what happened are extremely sketchy and subject to a great deal of controversy and conjecture, even to this day. But the known facts are these: On Dec 4, 1969, police raided this home at around 5 a.m. Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, members of the Black Panther Party, were killed. Two other men, a woman, a 17-year-old girl and one police officer were injured. A federal grand jury in 1970 found evidence of 76 shells. One was a shotgun shell, probably fired by Mark Clark. The rest had been fired by police. The grand jury blasted all parties involved. The raid was called "ill-conceived," the Black Panther Party refused to cooperate with the investigation and the press was criticized for their "grossly exaggerated" account of events. In addition, the police didn't clean up the scene for three days, during which time the Panthers held an open house which allowed onlookers to contaminate the scene and steal souvenirs. No indictments were handed down. In retaliation for this raid, Bill Ayers' Weather Underground Organization bombed squad cars at the Town Hall precinct police station in Lake View. Located at 2337 W. Monroe St.
Title: Site of Black Panther Party Raid, Fred Hampton's Death
Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagocrimescenes/16132756318/
Author: Stephen Hogan
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
License: CC BY 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes