Revolution and Response: The Chicago Black Panther

We’ll begin this class by discussing the mid-century wave of white mob violence against African Americans, and the role the Chicago Police Department played in policing these large-scale riots.

We’ll explore Fred Hampton’s life as an activist before cofounding the Chicago BPP with Bobby Rush. We’ll survey the political landscape in Chicago during the late 1960s, including the African American sub-machine under the Daley regime. We’ll examine the CPD’s policing tactics in the late 1960s and why the department targeted the BPP.

The core of the class examines the BPP’s ideology and community programs, and the events leading up to the murder of Fred Hampton. Of special interest is the BPP’s creation of multiethnic alliances across the city. The class will close by discussing the murder of Fred Hampton and the historical legacy of the BPP.

MATERIALS LIST

Required

• Jakobi Williams, From the Bullet to the Ballot. The University of North Carolina Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-4696-2210-1

First Reading

• For the first week, please read From the Bullet to the Ballot, pp. 28-42.